In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina led Awami League secured a majority in the 12th national election amid main opposition boycott. The results for the 224 seats, out of 299 seats, were declared so far. The Awami League won 165 seats while nine candidates of the Jatiya Party, 49 independent candidates and one candidate from other parties won. The counting for the remaining seats is underway and results for those seats will be known by Monday afternoon.
With the resounding victory, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, the incumbent premier, will form the government for the fourth straight term and the fifth in total. She won Gopalganj-3 constituency with a huge margin from her nearest rival. Hasina has instructed her partymen not to bring out any victory procession after the announcement of election results.
There were stray incidents of violence before and during the election, otherwise the elections happened in a peaceful atmosphere across the country.
The voting, held from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday in 299 out of 300 constituencies. According to final Election Commission (EC) statistics, the overall turnout of voters in the parliamentary polls was estimated to be around 40 per cent.
The major opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies had boycotted the polls, alleging a free and fair election was not possible under the Sheikh Hasina led government. The BNP and its allies had called a 48 hours Hartal from Saturday morning to Monday morning asking voters to refrain from voting.
