Bangladesh’s 2026 election campaign was fought not only on streets, at rallies and through traditional media, but increasingly on Facebook. DataXplainer analysed political advertising between 27 November 2025 and 24 February 2026, finding that more than ৳70.9 million was spent across 25,703 political ads run from 1,224 pages.
The investigation shows how campaigning is becoming increasingly candidate-driven and decentralised. Rather than spending being concentrated on official party pages, candidates and pro-candidate groups accounted for much of the advertising. In Dhaka, for example, 70.4% of spending was directly candidate-focused, while in Chattogram the figure reached 94.2%.
But the story isn’t simply about who spent the most. DataXplainer found evidence of coordinated networks of Facebook pages, with identical or similar messages and visuals appearing across multiple accounts. Smaller local pages and supporter networks also played a role, making it harder to see who was ultimately behind particular campaigns.
Geographically, spending was highly concentrated: 54% of the total was spent in just seven districts, with Dhaka alone accounting for almost 19% of the national spend.
The investigation therefore raises a bigger question about electoral transparency in Bangladesh: if political influence is increasingly bought and coordinated through networks of Facebook pages, how much of the campaign machinery can voters — or regulators — actually see?