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Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina is well on her way to form the government for a fourth consecutive term with the ruling party and its alliance partners set to bag a landslide victory in the 12th national election held yesterday.
According to the results available until 10:30pm Sunday, till the filing of this report, Awami League bagged 120 seats while the independent runners secured 38 seats and six seats went to Jatiya Party (JaPa).
After the daylong balloting ended, the Election Commission (EC) announced that around 40 per cent voters exercised their rights to choose members of the parliament from 299 constituencies.
The 8am-5pm voting across the country was mostly peaceful, except a few incidents of violence that left two people dead and allegations of irregularities including rigging or ballot stuffing in different parts of the country.
BNP, the main opposition party of the country, and their ally parties boycotted the polls and had urged the people to refrain from voting as they have been waging a movement demanding the election under a non-partisan government.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said that election was fare, fair and neutral thanks to the political will, sincerity and cooperation of the government.
“Since the government has sincerity…..and we received the assistance as assured by the government, the election was held in free, fair and neutral manner through a coordinated effort under the partisan government,” he said at a post-election press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka.
“Whether this election would be credible nationally and internationally may be known later after the results are published. You people will judge it,” he said in response to a question.
Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College in the capital on Sunday morning. She was accompanied by her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, her sister Sheikh Rehana and Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby.
“We hope the boat will win and once again we can form a government with the support of the people and materialise the status of a developing country that we have got," she told reporters after casting her vote.
"There were so many obstacles and hurdles, but the people of the country were cautious about their voting rights. The national election is held every five years. And people will cast their votes freely and we have been able to create that environment," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said BNP-Jamaat committed subversive acts by setting fire to trains, and buses and burning people to death to obstacle holding a peaceful election, referring to arson attacks on trains on Friday night.
"The BNP-Jamaat clique does not believe in democracy and they don't want the democratic process to continue. They don't act for the welfare of the people," she said.
Meanwhile, BNP thanked voters for boycotting the "unilateral" national election.
At a press briefing, senior BNP leader Abdul Moyeen Khan said the people of the country rejected the Awami League government through this voter-less election.
"On behalf of not only BNP but also all the 62 political parties who boycotted this farcical election, I salute the people of Bangladesh for the sole reason that they have never compromised on the question of democracy. They also didn't do this this time as well," he said.
Meanwhile, during the voting, the EC cancelled balloting in seven polling centres across the country.
"Voting has been cancelled at seven polling stations. Fifteen people have been handed down punishment for vote rigging or assisting in vote rigging," EC Secretary Jahangir Alam said at a press briefing.
Besides, for the first time in the country's history, the EC has cancelled the candidacy of AL-nominated candidate Mustafizur Rahman Chowdhury in Chattogram-16 (Banshkhali) over gross violations of the electoral code of conduct.
Throughout the day, seven candidates of Jatiya Party (JaPa), two from Trinamool BNP, one from Gono Front and seven independent aspirants boycotted the polls alleging irregularities, fake voting and vote rigging.
Meanwhile, a group of election observers from the Middle East, Russia, Scotland and Gambia praised Bangladesh's electoral process.
"The procedure in the voting centre was very simple and easy for voters. The duration of each vote, ranging from 1.15 to 2.30 seconds, is commendably efficient, meeting international standards," Palestinian observer Hisham Kuhail, who led a delegation from Palestine and Jordan, said at a press briefing at a Dhaka hotel in the afternoon.
Another group of Russian observers said that the arrangement of the polling procedure was conducted at a high standard.
Some 1,970 candidates, including 436 independent contenders, ran in the general election.
Out of 44 political parties registered with the EC, 16 were out of the electoral race.
There were 11,93,33,157 voters — 6,05,92,169 male, 5,87,40,140 female and 848 transgender — under 42,024 polling stations in all the constituencies, according to the EC.
Some 8,00,000 security personnel were on election duty to maintain the electoral atmosphere by checking violation of codes of conduct throughout the country.
On November 15, 2023, CEC Habibul Awal announced the schedule to hold the 12th general election.
