New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Bangladesh’s 13th National Parliamentary Election on February 12 unfolded amid widespread generative AI misuse, narrative manipulation and social media led voter obstruction to shape electoral outcomes, a new report has claimed.

The report from The Daily Star cited a report from a non-profit organisation Activate Rights which said generative AI was used to produce explicit images targeting female candidates and to fabricate minority voices urging votes for particular parties to prevent threats to them.

“AI-generated minority characters were shown claiming they are in danger, or asserting that if people don’t vote for Jamaat, they will be sent to India,” the report said.

The study analysed data from December 11, 2025, to February 16, 2026 and found “coordinated narrative manipulation functioned as a structural feature of the February 12 election.”

“Women candidates experienced disproportionate levels of online abuse despite constituting only four percent of contestants,” it noted.

Further, hardline Islamist accounts on social media tried to delegitimise democratic participation by portraying democracy fundamentally incompatible with Islam and religiously forbidden.

The report also revealed that the Awami League’s exclusion from the election, following ban on its political activities, prompted a coordinated social media boycott which went on to take the form of “explicit obstruction,” of preventing voters from reaching the polling booth.

Selectively edited video clips of political figures removing their phrases out of context, leading to social media users accusing speakers of blasphemy or anti-Islamic sentiment was another pattern seen in this election, the report said.

Bangladesh could fall behind peer nations and competing economies without radical reforms in tariffs and trade facilitation within five years, according to another recent report.

Bangladesh’s upcoming graduation out of UN’s Least Developed Country (LDC) category has made trade facilitation more urgent, as the country seeks to retain preferential market access through agreements with key partners, the report cited an expert.

—IANS

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