The Awami League party won 167 of 227 seats in the elections, and the result of the remaining seats has not yet been announced.
- The primary opposition, the BNP, abstained from going to the polls in protest.
- Hasina is credited with reviving the country’s economy.
- She instructed leaders and followers not to indulge in celebrations.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won an absolute majority and a fourth consecutive term in the general election on Monday, as many had predicted, despite low voter turnout and a boycott by the main opposition.
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which did not vote in 2014 but did vote in 2018, abstained from the polls in protest at Hasina’s refusal to step down and allow an impartial body to oversee the general election.
Hasina, 76, is the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who has served as prime minister since 1996.
It is credited with reviving the economy and textile industry and has also received international recognition for sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar. This will be his fifth time overall.
Most Bangladeshis stayed away from Sunday’s elections, which were marked by violence. Turnout was around 40% when polls closed, said chief electoral commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, compared to more than 80% in the last election in 2018.
The ruling Awami League party won 167 of 227 seats in the elections, and the result of the remaining seats has not yet been announced. Hasina got 249,962 votes from her constituency in Gopalganj, Dhaka, while her nearest rival got 469 votes.
Human rights groups warned of a one-party government by Hasina’s Awami League in Bangladesh, a country of 170 million, while the United States and Western nations called for a free and fair election, the 12th since Pakistan’s independence in 1971. . Reuters reported.
“I am doing my best to ensure that democracy continues in this country,” Hasina said on Sunday after casting her vote, adding that her only responsibility was to the citizens of Bangladesh.
He has instructed party leaders and followers not to take out victory processions or indulge in celebrations, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said.
Elections were held for 299 directly elected parliamentary seats with nearly 120 million voters eligible to choose from nearly 2,000 contenders. The election for a seat will be held at a later date after an independent contender dies before the vote due to natural causes.
Among the winners from the ruling party were actor Ferdous Ahmed and former Bangladesh cricket captains Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza.
Independent candidates, many of them members of the Awami League party of various ranks, won 49 seats.
