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Bangladesh is voting in an election seen as pivotal for the nation’s future as it seeks to chart a democratic course in the wake of the 2024 ouster of longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in a student-led uprising that killed hundreds.

Voters headed to the polls on Thursday to cast their votes in a contest pitting the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a Jamaat-e-Islami-led coalition that includes the National Citizens Party, formed by youth ‌activists instrumental in ousting Hasina. There are nearly 127 million registered voters in the South Asian country.

The two leading prime ministerial candidates are the BNP’s Tarique Rahman, a political scion who has edged ahead in polls with his anticorruption campaign, and Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman, who is aiming to present his long-excluded Islamist party as a credible and modern force for change.

Polls opened amid tight security, with hundreds of thousands of security personnel deployed on the streets, but voters cast their ballots in a mood of optimism in what is seen as the first free and fair election since 2008, when Hasina embarked on an oppressive 15-year stretch in power.

Jainab Lutfun Naher, a voter from the Gulshan area of Dhaka, told Al Jazeera that the experience was emotional and empowering. “I want this country to prosper,” she said. “I want it to be democratic, where everyone has rights and freedom.”

AMM Nasir Uddin, the chief election commissioner, said the poll would mark a break from the “arranged elections” of recent history. “We must forget the history of centre-grabbing and ballot box capture,” he said.

Uddin noted that voter turnout had been strong, saying Bangladesh had “boarded the train of democracy” and would soon “reach its destination”.

In parallel to the election, the country is also holding a referendum on constitutional reforms that the country’s caretaker government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, had put together after the student-led protests.

Reporting from Dhaka, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull said they included “institutional reforms, electoral, policing and constitutional reforms designed to ensure this country doesn’t again slide into autocracy”.

“I think this is really important as a sort of subtext to this election,” he said, predicting a “landslide ‘Yes’ vote”. “It is, perhaps, the truest legacy of that revolution 18 months ago, in which hundreds of students gave their lives.”

But the “bigger question”, he noted, is whether the election victor actually puts the reforms into practice.

‘Deep challenges’

Elections were held during Hasina’s tenure, but they were marred by opposition boycotts and intimidation, critics have said.

The 78-year-old former leader was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity for the bloody crackdown on protesters during her final months in power, and remains in hiding in India. Her Awami League party has been barred from the election.

Following the 2024 uprising, Yunus stepped in as interim leader with a mandate to restore a credible electoral process and build consensus around reforms, acting as democratic safeguards that would balance power among different state institutions.

“This election is not just another routine vote,” Yunus said this week. “It will determine the future direction of the country, the character of its democracy, its durability, and the fate of the next generation”.

Farhana Sultana, a professor of geography at Syracuse University, told Al Jazeera that if the election succeeded in restoring public trust, it would create a foundation for the country to tackle its “deep challenges”.

“Economic pressure, including youth unemployment and stagnating growth, is fuelling frustration among a new generation that demands real opportunity rather than symbolic change,” she said.

Climate, too, is an “ongoing existential issue for Bangladesh”, she said, adding that the new government would need to “integrate climate adaptation and water security into governance, economic planning and international cooperation”.

Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani has accused Israel of attempting to sabotage negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, so it can ignite a new war that would destabilise the region.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic during his visit to Doha, Qatar, where he met top officials on Wednesday, Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Israel had been fabricating pretexts to try to derail the negotiations with Washington, as the renewed talks were at a delicate stage.

“Our negotiations are exclusively with the United States – we are not engaged in any talks with Israel,” he said.

“However, Israel has inserted itself into this process, with their intent on undermining and sabotaging these negotiations.”

He said Israel’s strategy was “to destabilise the region”, and that its agenda “extends beyond its alleged concerns about Iran”, as was evidenced by its attack on the Qatari capital targeting Hamas officials in September.

“They are gambling not only with Iran, but also Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye,” he said, calling on regional leaders to “be aware of this.”

Israel’s attack on Iran in June came as Tehran and Washington were engaged in talks and effectively torpedoed the negotiations, which were several rounds in.

Netanyahu meets with Trump

Iran and the US held a round of indirect negotiations in Muscat, Oman, on Friday, seeking to negotiate a resolution to the nuclear dispute, amid a US military buildup in the region and Trump’s ongoing threats to strike Iran if it does not accede to his demands.

Amid plans for a second round of talks – the timing of which is currently under discussion, Larijani said – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Washington on Wednesday for urgent talks with Trump, where he presented the US leader with “principles” for negotiating with Iran.

After the meeting, Trump said “nothing definitive” had been reached, “other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated”.

‘Common ground’

Larijani told Al Jazeera that Tehran had not yet received a specific proposal from Washington in the negotiations, and that the talks in Muscat had consisted of an exchange of messages.

He said that Tehran was taking a positive position towards the negotiations, and that Washington, too, appeared to have concluded that negotiations were the preferred option.

He said there was common ground between Tehran and Washington regarding Iran not possessing a nuclear weapon, which it insists it is not pursuing.

Missiles, zero enrichment off the table

However, Larijani reiterated that the negotiations would be limited to Iran’s nuclear programme, with issues such as Iran’s missile programme – which the US has pushed to address in the talks, and is a key concern for Israel – not up for discussion.

“When we met at the negotiating table, a clear boundary was drawn … our talks centred solely on the nuclear issue,” he said, adding that this was a “logical” approach.

“Our missile program stands entirely separate from the nuclear one. It is a domestic matter, basically linked to our national security. As such, it cannot be part of these negotiations.”

Similarly, he said, the notion of Iran reducing its uranium enrichment to zero was “not on the table”.

“It is impractical for a country that has already mastered this technology to reduce it to zero,” he said, citing the need for enriched uranium for peaceful civilian purposes such as in cancer treatment.

“Meanwhile, we are open to verification, and anybody is welcome to come and see [our facilities] for themselves.”

If the US did opt to attack Iran, as it did in a series of strikes targeting the country’s nuclear facilities in June as part of a 12-day war, then Tehran would respond by attacking US military bases in the region, Larijani said.