DHAKA, Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Monday announced its candidates for the first parliamentary election in the South Asian nation after the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted last year in a mass uprising.

An interim government running the governance since then has said the elections will be held in February 2026.

The BNP announced 237 candidates for a total of 300 parliamentary seats, according to Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the party's secretary general.

Party leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will contest in three constituencies, while her son Tarique Rahman, who is the BNP’s acting chair, will also run.

Rahman has been in exile in the UK since 2008.

The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus earlier announced that the next elections will be held in the first half of February.

Yunus' spokesperson Shafiqul Alam recently said that the government was prepared to hold elections in a “peaceful and festive manner.”

Some other parties, including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, a former longtime ally of the BNP, is also in the running but has yet to announce its candidates.

The BNP was the first party to announce its candidate slate.