BNP secures two-thirds majority in Bangladesh Elections, Unofficial results

DHAKA: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has won the 13th parliamentary election in Bangladesh, according to foreign media reports.

Unofficial and unconfirmed results of the general election in Bangladesh continue to come in. According to the results obtained so far, the BNP and its allied parties have won 209 of the 299 seats.

According to unconfirmed results, the party led by Khaleda Zia’s son and prime ministerial candidate Tariq Rahman has won 151 seats, with Tariq Rahman winning both Dhaka and Bogra seats.

According to Bangladeshi media, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies have won 70 seats.  The National Citizen Party is also in alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami, but managed to win only 5 seats.

Voting, which began at 7:30 am, continued for nine hours. Voters cast their votes at 42,659 polling stations across the country using two separate ballot papers, one for the parliamentary elections and the other for the referendum.

Polling was held in 299 of the 300 constituencies in the country, while voting was postponed in Sherpur-3 due to the death of a candidate. According to the Election Commission, the turnout at 36,031 centres till 2 pm was 47.91 percent.

BNP chief Tariq Rahman said that public order is the priority so that the people can feel safe. Half of the country’s population is women; we will focus on them, with whom we launched the movement, and we will run the country together.

Tariq Rahman has appealed to the party’s supporters and workers to participate in special prayers and avoid any kind of rallies or celebrations.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Shafiqur-ur-Rehman accused the Election Commission of delaying some constituencies and threatened to protest.

Shafiqur-ur-Rehman said that he will react after the official results and assures that he will not oppose for the sake of opposing, but will do politics constructively and in the interest of the people.

National referendum, along with elections in Bangladesh

A national referendum was also held along with the national elections in Bangladesh. According to the results from Dhaka so far, 73 percent of voters have voted in favor of reforms.

According to Bangladeshi media, the people were to choose yes or no in response to the referendum, which will determine the country’s future political and constitutional structure.

The referendum seeks broad constitutional reforms to the July National Charter.