Bangladesh: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League is poised to return to power for the fifth consecutive term in Bangladesh following a resounding victory in the national elections held on Sunday.
The Awami League emerged victorious despite a call for a poll boycott by the prominent opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Unofficial results available until 10:47 p.m. on Sunday indicated that the ruling party secured victories in 181 constituencies, as reported by Somoy TV.
In defiance of the elections, the BNP and a handful of other political parties called for a general strike and refrained from participating in Sunday’s polls.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, aged 76, widely acknowledged for her pivotal role in the economic development of Bangladesh since its formation in 1971, secured a landslide win in the Gopalganj-3 (Tungipara, Kotalipara) constituency. She triumphed over her rival, M. Nizam Uddin Lashkar, with a significant margin.
The Awami League’s president garnered 249,965 votes from 108 centers in the constituency, as reported by bdnews24.com. Her closest competitor, Nizam Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party, managed to secure only 469 votes.
This marks her eighth consecutive victory in the Gopalganj-3 seat since 1986, according to the news portal.
Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, currently holds the distinction of being the world’s longest-serving female Prime Minister.
Bangladesh’s political landscape has been characterized by a rivalry between Hasina and Khaleda Zia of the BNP. Zia, who served as Prime Minister for two terms in her political career, is currently in poor health and hospitalized in Dhaka, having been convicted in a graft case in 2018.
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Kazi Habibul Awal, reported an approximate 40 percent voter turnout during Sunday’s elections. The CEC noted that turnout figures might fluctuate as the counting process is ongoing, as reported by Prothom Alo.
In a notable development, Bangladesh’s star cricketer and captain, Shakib Al Hasan, initiated his political career with a victory in the Magura-1 constituency, representing the Awami League. Shakib secured 185,388 votes in the polls.