With barely three months to go before Bangladesh heads to the 13th parliamentary election, the country finds itself confronting a challenge that no generation of voters before has faced at such scale: an election shaped as much by digital manipulation as by genuine political debate. What once circulated as harmless rumour now reappears as AI-polished fictions – images, audio clips and videos designed to mislead, inflame and, ultimately, derail democratic choice. When a major party’s official social media account can share a fabricated photograph that only later collapses under scrutiny, it becomes painfully clear how fragile the information environment has become.

The government’s response, through the amended Representation of the People Ordinance 2025, is a necessary acknowledgement of this shifting terrain. By classifying the intentional spread of false or AI-generated content as a corrupt practice punishable by up to six years in prison, the law attempts to place a boundary around behaviour that threatens electoral integrity. Yet rules on paper cannot neutralise the problem unless supported by real capacity. Advanced monitoring systems, trained analysts and a swift fact-checking pipeline are indispensable, and the Election Commission must be resourced accordingly. Its early moves to draft a digital monitoring framework and seek expert guidance are encouraging, but the machinery must be made fully functional well before ballots are cast.

Political parties and the media have responsibilities they can neither outsource nor evade. Parties must rein in their digital operatives and resist the lure of narrative warfare fuelled by AI. To weaponise falsehood now is to chip away at the very legitimacy any future government will depend upon. Media houses, meanwhile, should strengthen verification desks, avoid amplifying dubious content and collaborate more closely with independent fact-checkers. In a climate where misinformation races ahead of correction, responsible editorial judgement becomes a public duty.
Ultimately, the resilience of this election will hinge on voters themselves. Citizens must learn to slow down in a medium built for speed: cross-check sources, question emotional triggers, and refrain from sharing posts that could escalate tension or sow confusion. A short pause is sometimes all that stands between responsible engagement and unwitting complicity.