Bangladesh Elections: PM Sheikh Hasina Re-Elected for Fifth Term

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clinched victory in the national elections held on Sunday, securing her re-election for a remarkable fifth term. The elections took place amid a boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who is presently incarcerated. Despite the absence of the BNP's participation, Hasina emerged victorious in the polls. Hasina’s party won 200 seats in the 300-seat parliament while counting is still underway after the end of the day-long voting on Sunday.

We can call Awami League winner with the already available results but the final announcement will be made after the end of the counting of votes in the rest of the constituencies, an election commission spokesman told reporters. Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. She bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.

At 76 years old, the seasoned leader, who has been at the helm of the strategically positioned South Asian nation since 2009, achieved a historic fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, marked by a notably low turnout. Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader asserted that the electorate's rejection of the election boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami was evident through their active participation and casting of ballots.

Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader won the Rangpur-3 seat in the 12th national parliamentary election. According to the initial estimates, the voter turnout was around 40 per cent but the figure could change after the final count, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal earlier said. The 2018 general election recorded an overall turnout of more than 80 per cent.