Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia will run in national elections due in February.
The announcement came from her Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday. The BNP is widely viewed as the leading contender in the polls.
Zia is 80 years old and has dominated the country’s political struggles for decades.
Senior BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said she will contest in three constituencies. Her son, Tarique Rahman, will also be a candidate. Alamgir confirmed this to reporters.
Zia has been in poor health in recent years. She spent years imprisoned under Sheikh Hasina, who was forced from power after a mass uprising in August 2024.
Zia, who led Bangladesh three times, was jailed in 2018 for corruption under Hasina’s government. That administration also blocked her from going abroad for medical care. She was released last year, shortly after Hasina fell.
Rahman is 59. He has been living in Britain since 2008. In Bangladesh, he is widely known as Tarique Zia. He has said he left due to politically motivated persecution. He has not returned to Bangladesh since then.
After Hasina’s ouster, Rahman was cleared of the most serious charge against him. That charge carried a life sentence in absentia and was linked to a 2004 grenade attack on a rally held by Hasina. Rahman had always denied involvement.
Bangladesh’s modern political history has long been shaped by the rivalry between Zia and Hasina. This feud is often referred to as the “Battle of the Begums”. In South Asia, the title “Begum” is used to refer to a powerful woman.
The roots of hostility go back to the assassination of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975. He was the country’s independence leader. Most of his family was killed in that coup. Three months later, Zia’s husband, Ziaur Rahman, who was then deputy army chief, took charge. He became president in 1977. He was assassinated in 1981.
Zia, who was then 35 and a mother of two, took over leadership of the BNP. At first, she was dismissed as inexperienced. She later became a major force. She opposed military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad. She later joined with Hasina to remove him in 1990.
After that, both leaders alternated in office for the next 15 years.