2023 Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad by-elections

In 2023, by-elections are scheduled to be held for vacant seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, the legislative body of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. In the Jatiya Sangsad, MPs for 300 seats are elected directly and MPs for 50 reserved women seats are elected indirectly by the MPs, thus popular by-elections are only held in the direct seats. As the 11th parliament is scheduled to be expire on 29 January 2024 and the Election Commission has announced to hold the next Bangladeshi general election between late December 2023 to early January 2024, all candidates elected by these by-polls will be members of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad.

By-elections this year held much more significance than other by-elections during this (11th) parliament. Bangladesh has experienced democratic backsliding in recent years. Although all of the by-elections are boycotted by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and it's allies. BNP and it's allies, which are the 'political opposition' of the AL, has continuously accused the ruling Awami League of vote rigging and electoral dishonesty.

The first by-election was held after being postponed by the Election Commission after they witnessed 'mass irregularities', which other parties and observers had alleged before. However, the seat was later won by the ruling party.

Seven of the by-polls were held due to the resignation of BNP lawmakers from the parliament in December 2022 as part of their anti-governmental campaign. One of them was an MP for a reserved seat. The direct seats were all won by AL-backed candidates except one. BNP's Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan resigned from the party to re-run in the election and won. His election led to major political discussions and the popularization of the term 'candidate models'.

Except these, by-elections were held in Chattogram-8, Dhaka-17 and Chattogram-10 with a very low voter turnout, with the AL candidate winning in the Netrokona-4 and Natore-4 unopposed. Incidents regarding the Dhaka-17 by-election resulted in some diplomatic and domestic actions and reactions. Eventually, political oppositions of the AL are predicted to continue boycotting elections under the current government led by Sheikh Hasina.

Reasons and schedules for by-elections

Events leading to by-elections

As of 1 August 2023, there were 12 by-elections held in the country due to these following reasons:

By-election schedules

January

By-election was held for 1 vacant seat in the parliament.

February

By-elections were held for 6 vacant seats in the parliament.

Political parties and candidature

Party-wise candidate list

• Political parties:
• Independent(s): 20 independent candidates competed in 10 different seats.

Election(s)

Gaibandha-5

The Gaibandha-5 seat is the 33rd constituency of the parliament, which has been in control of JaPa and AL in different times. Miah won as a JaPa candidate on this seat in 1986 and 1991. Miah later joined AL and lost in 2001 to JaPa's Raushan Ershad, and then he won beating Raushan in 2008. He then served as the MP of this seat and as the Deputy Speaker of the parliament until his death on 22 July 2022, winning all elections in the midway as an AL candidate.

As the Election Commission announced the election schedule, only three political parties nominated candidates. Among four to five nomination seekers, AL nominated Mahmud Hasan as their party candidate, who was the former president of Chhatra League (AL's student-wing) from 2006 to 2011. On the other hand, JaPa nominated Golam Shahid Ranju, who was the Vice-Chairman of the party in Gaibandha during the election. Ranju also ran as a JaPa candidate 2018, but he lost to Miah by a large margin. Apart from these two, Bikalpa Dhara's Jahangir Alam and six independent candidates submitted nomination papers, although four of the independent candidates' candidacy were cancelled after scrutiny.

Thakurgaon-3

Bogura-4

Bogura-6

Chapai Nawabganj-2

Chapai Nawabganj-3

Brahmanbaria-2

Chattogram-8

Dhaka-17

Chattogram-10

Netrokona-4

Reserved Women Seat-50

Lakhshmipur-3

Brahmanbaria-2

Results

Summary

Constituency-wise

Gaibandha-5

Thakurgaon-3

Bogura-4

Bogura-6

Chapai Nawabganj-2

Chapai Nawabganj-3

Brahmanbaria-2

Notes

References