Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won an overwhelming majority in the general elections amid boycott by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies.
Hasina’s party won 223 seats in the 300-seat Parliament. Election was held for 299 seats The election to one seat will be held later due to the death of a candidate, reports said.
The Jatiya Party, got 11 seats, Bangladesh Kallyan party won in one constituency while independent candidates won in 62 seats. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and the Workers Party of Bangladesh won one seat each.
The elections witnessed the second-lowest turnout since the restoration of democracy in 1991. The turnout in the controversial February 1996 polls was 26.5%, the lowest in Bangladesh’s history. The turnout in Sunday’s election was 27.15% at 3:00 pm, but after voting closed at 4:00 pm, the Election Commission estimated the final tally could stand at around 40%.
Former premier Khaleda Zia-led BNP, which boycotted the election and observed a strike on election day, said the party plans to intensify its anti-government movement through a peaceful public engagement programme from Tuesday as it dubbed the polls as “fake.”
The BNP leaders said that the low turnout was evidence that their boycott movement had been successful. They said that peaceful democratic protest programmes will be accelerated, and the people’s right to vote will be established through this programme.
