Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won an absolute majority and a fourth consecutive term in a general election on Monday, as many had predicted, despite low turnout and a boycott by the main opposition.
The primary opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which did not vote in 2014 but did so in 2018, abstained in protest at Hasina’s refusal to step down and let an impartial body oversee the general election.
Hasina (76) is the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who has been prime minister since 1996.
She has been instrumental in reviving the economy and the garment industry, and has also received international recognition for sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar. It will be the fifth time overall.
Bangladeshis mostly stayed away from Sunday’s election, which was marred by violence. Voter turnout was about 40% when polling stations closed, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said, compared to more than 80% in the last election in 2018.
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The ruling Awami League won 167 of the 227 seats in the election, with the result of the remaining seats yet to be announced. Hasina got 249,962 votes from her Gopalganj constituency in Dhaka, while her nearest rival got 469 votes.
Rights groups have warned against the one-party rule of Hasina’s Awami League in Bangladesh, a country of 170 million people, as the US and Western nations called for free and fair elections, the 12th since Pakistan’s independence in 1971, Reuters reported.
“I am trying my best to ensure that democracy continues in this country,” Hasina said on Sunday after casting her vote, adding that her only responsibility was to the citizens of Bangladesh.
She directed party leaders and supporters not to take out any victory processions or indulge in celebrations, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said.
Polls were held for 299 directly elected parliamentary seats, with nearly 120 million voters able to choose from nearly 2,000 contestants. A single-seat election will be held at a later date after an independent contestant dies of natural causes before the vote.
The ruling party’s winners included actor Ferdous Ahmed and former Bangladesh cricket captains Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza.
Independent candidates, many of whom were members of the Awami League party at various levels, won 49 seats.
