Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina looked certain on Sunday to win a fifth term in office following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a “terrorist organisation”, as partial results pointed to an overwhelming victory.
Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty.
Turnout was around 40%, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said after the polls closed.
Her party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested, but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies.
* Politics in the world’s eighth-most populous country was long dominated by the rivalry between Hasina, the daughter of the country’s founding leader, and two-time premier Khaleda Zia, wife of a former military ruler.
* The government has rejected a monthslong demand by the BNP to have a neutral caretaker government administer Sunday’s vote.
The government has defended the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates are participating.
* Hasina is credited with transforming the economy of a young nation born out of war and making its garment sector one of the world’s most competitive.
* Her supporters say she has staved off military coups and neutralized the threat of Islamist militancy.
* And internationally, she’s helped raise Bangladesh’s profile as a nation capable of doing business and maintaining diplomatic ties with countries often at odds with each other.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate in the election.
But Hasina, 76, called for citizens to show faith in the democratic process.
“The BNP is a terrorist organisation,” she told reporters after casting her vote.
“I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country,” she added.
Bangladeshi media reported that with results in more than a third of the 300 seats announced, Hasina’s ruling Awami League and her allies had won at least 85 percent.
Somoy TV, the country’s largest private news broadcaster, said of the 114 seats declared, Hasina’s ruling Awami League had won 93 and its ally Jatiya Party had won four, while the other 17 seats had been taken by independent or other allied lawmakers.
Counting continues, but among the victors was Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh cricket team captain, who won his seat to become a ruling party lawmaker.
First-time voter Amit Bose, 21, said he had cast his ballot for his “favourite candidate”, but others said they had not bothered because the outcome was assured.
Officers in the port city of Chittagong broke up an opposition protest Sunday, firing shotguns and tear gas canisters, but election officials said voting was largely peaceful, with nearly 800,000 police officers and soldiers deployed countrywide.
Politics in the world’s eighth-most populous country was long dominated by the rivalry between Hasina, the daughter of the country’s founding leader, and two-time premier Khaleda Zia, wife of a former military ruler.
Hasina has been the decisive victor since returning to power in a 2009 landslide.
Zia, 78, was convicted of graft in 2018 and is now in ailing health at a hospital in Dhaka, with her son Tarique Rahman helming the BNP from London.
Hasina has accused the BNP of arson and sabotage during last year’s protest campaign, which was mostly peaceful but saw several people killed in police confrontations.
The government has defended the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates are participating.
