BNP Tops Facebook Election Spending, Jamaat Follows Behind

Election campaigning in Bangladesh has increasingly shifted toward digital platforms, with Facebook emerging as a major battleground. Over a one-month period surrounding the election schedule announcement, political parties, candidates, and their supporters spent more than USD 52,000 on Facebook political advertisements—roughly Tk 6.4 million.

An analysis of Meta’s Ad Library data (covering December 25 to January 23) shows spending from 112 Facebook pages that each ran ads worth at least USD 100. Since smaller ad expenses are not fully disclosed, actual spending is likely higher.

Among all parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led digital spending. Around 50 Facebook pages promoted BNP content, with a combined ad cost of USD 30,916, equivalent to about Tk 3.77 million.

The second-highest spender was Jamaat-e-Islami, which used 33 pages for promotion. Total expenditure for Jamaat-linked ads reached USD 11,222, or approximately Tk 1.37 million.

Several other parties—including the National Citizen Party (NCP), Islami Andolon Bangladesh, and AB Party—along with independent candidates, also invested in online promotion. Some individual candidates spent heavily, with certain pages running hundreds of ads in a single month.

In terms of ad volume, BNP-affiliated pages published the highest number of ads, followed by Jamaat. Most advertisements featured videos and graphics highlighting campaign messages, while some included criticism of political rivals and references to international or religious issues.

The rising cost of digital campaigning has raised concerns about transparency and monitoring. Although the Election Commission maintains spending limits for candidates, experts warn that weak oversight of online advertising could undermine electoral fairness unless digital expenses are strictly tracked and included within official campaign budgets.