OPINION - Can Bangladesh’s political parties meet public expectations in the next parliament?

Only one and half years ago, the streets of Dhaka looked like a war zone. Smoke rose from burning tires. The ‎sound of gunfire replaced the noise of traffic. In July 2024, students stood in front of armoured ‎vehicles with nothing but flags and courage. They died by the hundreds. While official counts ‎vary, activists and international bodies like the UN estimate between 1,400 and 2,000 people ‎lost their lives in those forty-six days of rage. Now, in 2026, the smoke has cleared. As Bangladesh prepares for its first general ‎election since the “Monsoon Revolution” of July 2024‎. In the tea stalls of Dhaka, people once whispered political gossip with a glance over the shoulder, the conversation has now shifted. A noisy, chaotic, and often anxious freedom replaced the fear that defined the pre-2024 era is gone.

The history of Bangladesh has often been binary; a tug-of-war between secularism and Islamism. Either “Development miracle” marred by authoritarianism. However, for the 170 million people preparing to vote in 2026, the primary ballot question is neither ideological nor identity-based. It is about financial reconstruction of Bangladesh. The electorate is waiting to see who will pick up the tab for seventeen years of unbridled cronyism, and how they plan to reconstruct an economy that the regime looted from the inside out.

To understand the voter’s mind in 2026‎, one must first audit the legacy of the regime that fell one and half years ago. For 15 years, the previous ‎regime ran a “Lootocracy.” ‎For over a decade, the Awami League government sold a seductive narrative to the world: the “Singapore Model.” It was a social contract that traded civil liberties for GDP growth. On paper, it worked. Per capita income rose, and the skyline of Dhaka bristled with concrete and steel.

The ruling party effectively turned the state into a ‘plunder machine,’ where political leaders used power to amass wealth for a few oligarchs. This corruption and Crony Capitalism ‎did not just shrink democracy; it broken the spine of the economy. The result is a colossal ‎sovereign debt of 21 trillion BDT, an unprecedented liquidity crisis in the banking sector. By late 2025, Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) had surged to a staggering Tk 6.44 lakh crore that ‎approximately 35.7% of all outstanding loans. Syndicates siphoned out an estimated ‎$16 billion of the country annually. A cumulative theft of nearly ‎‎$234 billion over a decade. This capital flight didn’t just drain foreign reserves; it hollowed out ‎the banking sector, turning it into a piggy bank for a politically connected oligarchy.‎

The “development paradox” is now the primary pinpoint to the voter. They see the flyovers, the metro rails, and the nuclear power plants, but they also feel the crushing weight of the debt incurred to build them. The average Bangladeshi now carries the burden of per capita debt that has doubled in five years, while the benefits of these mega-projects trickled up to a select few. The expectation for the next government is not more concrete and steel, but a forensic accounting of where the money went and a strategy to bring it back.

The people want the impossible trinity: lower prices, higher wages, and contractionary policy to pay ‎off national debt. But underlying these contradictions lies a unified demand for financial dignity. ‎They want a state that treats the national treasury as a public trust, not a private inheritance.‎

The interim government, led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, administered necessary ‎but painful medicine. By floating the currency and tightening the money supply, they managed ‎to stabilize foreign reserves that had dropped sharply near $20 billion. But stabilization is ‎not relief. Inflation, which hovered near 11% during the dying days of the previous regime, has ‎stubbornly refused to drop below 8-9%.‎

For the lower-middle class, this has been a silent tragedy. These are families who do not qualify ‎for social safety nets but have seen their real wages evaporate. The “human cost” of this ‎inflation is visible in the shrinking dietary diversity of children and the quiet emigration of families ‎from Dhaka to the villages, unable to afford city rents.‎

While macro-level corruption dominates the news headlines, micro-level inflation drives the mood on the street. In the markets of Karwan Bazar, the price of essentials (rice, lentils, eggs) remains the only metric that matters to the normal people. In the old “political culture,” these businessmen were also politicians. They sat in parliament ‎and made laws to protect their own profits.‎ In this election, people expect the next administration to dismantle the syndicates cartels of politically protected ‎middlemen who manipulate supply chains to keep prices artificially high. ‎They want a free market, not a rigged one. They want to know that the price of rice ‎depends on the harvest; not on the greed of a few powerful men.‎ And they demand a government that protects the consumer, not the supplier.‎

The expectation for the incoming government is radical depoliticization. The interim government dismantled corrupt boards of banks and investigated loan defaulter. However, the voters now demand a strict barrier between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. They demand an autonomous Bangladesh Bank that can punish a loan of their political colour. The era where a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office could authorize a million-dollar loan must be definitively over. If the next government fails to prosecute the architects of this financial collapse, they will face a crisis of legitimacy before their first year is out.

In the next election, people want a “Service Provider,” not a “Ruler.” They want a Prime ‎Minister who serves them, not one who demands public worship. This is a massive shift in ‎Bangladesh’s political culture. The people want three specific structural changes; independence ‎of institutions, end of the political violence, meritocracy in job recruitment.

In the past, the Prime Minister controlled everything. The Central Bank governor, the Chief ‎Justice, and the Police Chief were all appointed based on the royalty to the ruling party‎. The police served the party, not the public.‎ All government institute working with one core philosophy: “We will give you development, and you will give us your freedom.” The voters want these institutions to be free. The ‎Central Bank must be able to say “No” to the government to stop the reckless printing of money ‎that fuels inflation.‎ The police must serve the law, not the ruling party.‎ That’s why upcoming government must have to pass laws to separate these powers. ‎

Bangladesh has a “Winner-Takes-All” politics. The party that wins the election gets everything and control everything. ‎The loser gets nothing or goes to jail. Loser party doesn’t get enough space to talk in the parliament and the street. This makes the elections violent. People are tired of this violence. They want a parliament where the opposition ‎has a strong voice.‎ That’s why interim government in reform policy proposes “Proportional Representation” system. This means if a party ‎gets 10% of the votes, they get 10% of the seats. This forces parties to work together and ‎prevents the rise of a single dictator.‎

Finally, there is the demographic that ignited the revolution: Generation Z. It is crucial to remember that the July 2024 uprising began not as a movement for democracy, but as a desperate demand for jobs (quota reform).

Two years later, the youth unemployment crisis remains the state’s ticking time bomb. The “demographic dividend” is in danger of becoming a demographic disaster. The private sector, spooked by two years of instability and energy shortages, has been slow to hire. The civil service, once the golden ticket, cannot absorb the millions of graduates who graduated from universities every year.

‎The incoming government have to spend on human brains. The next budget must focus on education and technology to ‎absorb the 2 million young people entering the workforce every year.‎ The incoming administration will face a stark choice: continue the patron-client politics where political leaders distributes jobs to party loyalists or build a true meritocracy. If they choose the former system, the streets of Dhaka will not stay quiet for long.

At last, the 2026 election is not just a contest for power; it is a referendum on the survival of the state’s economic soul. The winners will inherit crisis of a broken banking system, a restless youth, and an empty vault. They have to pay back nearly $112 billion in external debt. They have to fix a broken banking ‎system. GDP growth, or any other economic metrics will not be measurement for assess their success‎. Their success will be measure on their ability to rewrite the socio-economy context. They have to calm a traumatized nation. If the new leaders fail, the anger will return. The ‎people of Bangladesh have learned a dangerous lesson: If the government does not listen, we ‎can remove them. ‎

The 2026 election is a test. It is a test for the politicians: Can they be humble? Can they serve without stealing? It is also a test for the people. Can they be patient? Rebuilding a looted nation takes time. But one thing is certain. The ballot paper in 2026 weighs more than paper. It carries the weight of 2,000 graves. The people are not just voting for a party. They are voting to make sure that the “Lootocracy” never returns. They are voting for a country where a people can walk on the street without fear of a bullet or disappearing. That is the most revolutionary demand of all.

Dr. Muhammad Salah Uddin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Trade and Logistics at Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Türkiye. His research focuses on political and financial economy, sustainable development, and institutional quality.

Shaon Hossen Bappi is a Research Fellow at the Center for Policy and Social Research in Türkiye.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors.