Dhaka, Dec 27 (IANS) The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman completed the process of registering for a National Identity Card (NID) and having his name included in the voter list on Saturday, following his return to the country after 17 years of self-imposed exile, local media reported.
Two days after returning from London, Rahman visited the grave of extremist leader Osman Hadi in the Dhaka University area on Saturday morning.
He then went to the Election Building in the capital with party leaders and workers to complete his voter registration and receive a national identity card, leading Bangladeshi Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported.
According to ASM Humayun Kabir, Director General of the National Identity Registration Wing at the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC), Rahman is likely to receive his NID within 24 hours of completing voter registration.
“Tarique Rahman has already filled out the online form and has come to complete the registration by providing his fingerprints and iris scan. The software will automatically verify his information against existing records. If no match is found, the NID number will be generated within 5 to 24 hours,” Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted Kabir as saying while addressing reporters at the EC’s National Identity Wing in Dhaka.
Reports suggest that Rahman will contest the February 2026 elections as a candidate from Bogra district’s Sadar constituency, his ancestral area, with local BNP leaders having already collected his nomination papers.
Meanwhile, the Awami League highlighted that under Bangladeshi law, new voter registration is legally prohibited once the election schedule is announced, questioning Rahman’s registration while the schedule was still in effect.
Moreover, the party asked how the process was carried out on a Saturday, a weekly government holiday, how the law was followed and under whose instructions it was done.
According to the Awami League, these incidents are not isolated but instead form a continuous pattern, prompting questions about whether separate rules are being applied for Rahman.
If so, the party asked, where does the constitutionally proclaimed principle that “the law is equal for all” stand?
Rahman’s return to Bangladesh on Thursday comes at a time when the EC announced that the country’s 13th national parliamentary election, along with a referendum on the July Charter, will be held on February 12 next year.
Analysts reckon that Rahman’s return and participation in the upcoming elections will test the waters amid the ongoing turbulence in Bangladesh’s politics under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, which is under mounting pressure to deliver a free, fair and credible election.
Critics warn that Rahman’s return to the volatile political landscape in Bangladesh could deepen tension across the country.
–IANS
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