Bangladesh’s incumbent Awami League Party, headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has stormed back to power for the 4th consecutive term in the 12th parliamentary election held on Sunday, according to Bangladesh Election Commission trends in local media.
The Awami League has emerged as victorious in at least 223 of the 299 seats, according to reported trends.
For her part, Hasina managed to win the Gopalganj-3 constituency by a landslide margin of nearly 250,000 votes. This is Hasina’s fifth term in power as the Prime Minister, making her the longest serving executive head in the South Asian nation’s history.
The Jatiya Party, which was the main opposition, won from 11 seats.
In the lead-up to the election, the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its pro-Islamist allies boycotted the vote as they demanded that Hasina stepped down from power and the election be held under a care-taker set-up.
In a statement on Sunday after voting concluded at 4 pm, Awami League declared in a statement that voters had rejected the boycott call by the BNP-led coalition.
The Awami League hailed the Bangladeshi voters for defying threats of violence and coming out to vote, as it noted that nearly 21 polling stations in 14 districts were set on fire a day before the election.
Less than two days before the election, a train was set on fire by miscreants in Dhaka, leading to the death of four people and two children.
Foreign Observers Deem Voting as Fair and Transparent
Non-western and western foreign observers invited by the Bangladesh government addressed different press conferences, deeming that the election was fair, transparent and legitimate.
“Speaking of increased security measures, I would like to note that order and security were ensured by the law enforcement agencies as well as international experts. This is a serious advantage, because the voters in the polling stations we visited felt safe,” Andrey Shutov, a Russian observer, said.
A US delegation led by former Congressman Jim Bates, told local media that the election was “free and fair”, as he rejected concerns around relatively low voter turnout.
Observers were also invited from India, EU, Canada, European Union, Cameroon, Cambodia, Namibia and Thailand among others.