Bangladesh elections 2024: PM Sheikh Hasina re-elected for fifth term, says EC
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been re-elected to parliament.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday (Jan 7) won the re-election for a fifth term, with her Awami League party bagging 223 seats, as per an election official.
"The Awami League has won the election," said Moniruzzaman Talukder, a joint secretary of the Election Commission a day after the election that was boycotted by the opposition. Talukder said Hasina's party won 223seats.
With this, Sheikh Hasina has wona fourth consecutive term amid opposition boycott. Overall, this will be her fifth tenure as PM of Bangladesh.
The Hasinagovernment had arrested thousands of rival politicians ahead of the polls.The Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former PM Khaleda Zia boycotted the polls. Zia, 78, is under house arrest after being convicted in a corruption case.
Prime Minister Hasina was re-elected to parliament from the Gopalganj-3 constituency. According to a report by bdnews24, Hasina bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.
Hasina has been voted to parliament from the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986.
Here's a look at the latest updates:
> According to results collated by Somoy TV, of the 264 seats of the total 300 announced, the Awami League won 204 seats and its ally Jatiya Party won nine seats.
> Awami League candidate and Bangladeshi cricket team captain Shakib Al Hasan won the Magura-1 parliamentary constituency.
>Earlier, media collating results from polling stations said Hasina had won more than two-thirds of seats in parliament with nearly 90 per cent of results declared. The Awami League faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested, but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies.
> The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotted this general election. Upon casting her vote, Prime Minister Hasina called the BNP a "terrorist organisation". Hasina added, "I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country."
> Awami League leader Muhammad Shahjahan, who quit the BNP, won Sunday's election in the Jhalkathi-1 constituency with a huge vote, Somoy TV reported.
> Earlier Hasina told her party leaders, activists and supporters not to bring out any victory procession after the results were announced.
(With inputs from agencies)