DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Polls opened across Bangladesh on Thursday for voters to cast ballots in a parliamentary election seen as a critical test of the country’s democracy after years of political turmoil.

More than 127 million people are eligible to vote, and security was tight at the tens of thousands of polling stations around the country. Balloting will continue through Thursday with results expected Friday.

The election is Bangladesh’s first since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government collapsed in 2024 after weeks of mass protests. Hasina fled the country and her party is banned from the polls. She is living in exile in India.

Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party is a leading contender to form the next government. He is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in self-exile in London.

Challenging the BNP is an 11-party alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.

The election is being overseen by an interim administration led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, which has pledged to ensure a fair vote.

Bangladesh’s Parliament has 350 seats. Lawmakers will be elected by plurality and the parliament serves a five-year term.