Human rights advocacy organization Write For Rights has called for a thorough, independent investigation into alleged widespread irregularities and vote rigging during Bangladesh’s 13th Parliamentary Election and accompanying national referendum, held on February 12, 2026.
In a statement issued on March 16, 2026, the group described the polls—conducted under the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus and later resulting in a landslide victory for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)—as a “flawed, one-sided, and staged farce.” It accused regime-aligned groups, including those linked to Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP, of orchestrating manipulations such as ballot stuffing, cash distribution, polling center occupation, and result tampering.
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The organization highlighted reports from Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), which monitored the process and documented issues including fake votes in a sample of polling centers, voter coercion, booth capturing, and ballot seal tampering. Write For Rights cited these figures—21.4% fake votes in monitored centers, 35.9% coerced voters, and 58.3% booths allegedly captured—as evidence of systemic fraud.
Eyewitness accounts, viral videos, and incidents in constituencies like Narayanganj, Jhenaidah, Noakhali, Sylhet, and Mymensingh reportedly showed presiding officers and agents pre-stamping ballots in favor of Jamaat-e-Islami’s “Scale” symbol and the BNP’s “Sheaf of Paddy” before voting began.
Probir Kumar Sarker, founder and chairperson of Write For Rights and a veteran journalist, condemned the alleged acts as a “direct assault on the foundational rights of Bangladeshi citizens to free and fair participation in governance.” He pointed to cash seizures worth millions of taka linked to Jamaat and BNP workers in districts such as Thakurgaon, Shariatpur, Patuakhali, and Lakshmipur, as well as the disenfranchisement of voters, including minorities in areas like Chittagong’s Banshkhali, who were reportedly barred from polling stations.
The statement criticized the ban on the Awami League, which prevented the former ruling party from participating, rendering the election exclusionary and unrepresentative.
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Write For Rights urged the media, civil society, and the international community—including the United Nations, European Union, and human rights organizations—to pressure the now-ruling BNP government and the Election Commission for an impartial probe, potentially overseen by neutral international experts. The group demanded the annulment of disputed results, re-polling in affected areas, and prosecutions under the Representation of the People Order, 1972, and relevant anti-corruption laws.
Failure to address these issues, the organization warned, could entrench authoritarian practices and further erode trust in Bangladesh’s democratic institutions.
Sarker described the February 12 polls as “not a step toward stability but a regression into mobocracy, where money, muscle, and manipulation supplanted the people’s voice.” He reaffirmed the group’s commitment to advocating for the disenfranchised, including turned-away voters, marginalized minorities, and silenced democracy defenders, until full accountability is achieved.