The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) achieved a decisive victory in Bangladesh‘s 13th general elections held on Thursday, February 12, securing more than a two-thirds majority and enabling its alliance to form the next government. BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman is set to assume office as Prime Minister for the first time.
The Election Commission (EC) released unofficial results from 297 of the 299 parliamentary constituencies where voting occurred. Polling in Chattogram-2 and Chattogram-4 was postponed, while voting in Sherpur-3 was suspended following the death of a candidate from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (Jamaat).
According to the unofficial tally, BNP independently won 209 seats. Its alliance partners—the Gano Odhikar Parishad, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) and Gano Sanghati Andalon—each secured one seat. Jamaat emerged as the principal opposition with 68 seats. Among its allies, the National Citizen Party (NCP) won six seats, Bangladesh Khilafat Majlis two, Khelafat Majlish one and Islami Andolon Bangladesh one. Independent candidates were elected in seven constituencies.
The voter turnout reached 59.44% for the parliamentary elections, while a concurrent referendum recorded 60.26% turnout, with over 48 million votes in favor (‘Yes’) and 22.6 million votes against (‘No’). Foreign observers and independent monitors described the polls as free, fair and conducted in line with international standards.
Polling began at 7:30 am across 42,779 centres nationwide. A total of 127.7 million registered voters were eligible to participate, including 64.8 million men, 62.9 million women and 1,232 third-gender voters. Fifty political parties fielded 2,028 candidates, including 273 independents. BNP nominated the highest number with 291 candidates, and 83 women contested the elections.
The EC deployed nearly 800,000 officials, excluding security forces, including returning officers, presiding officers and polling staff. Security arrangements were extensive, with 103,000 army personnel, 8,500 navy members, 37,453 Border Guard Bangladesh members and 3,585 Coast Guard personnel. Police deployment totaled 187,603, with 9,349 Rapid Action Battalion personnel and 567,868 Ansar members on duty.
Election monitoring included 55,454 observers from 81 local organizations and 394 foreign observers, alongside nearly 200 foreign journalists. Among international observers, 80 represented organizations, while the rest were independent observers from various countries, including Europe.
The landslide victory drew congratulations from major international players, including the United States, United Kingdom, China India and Pakistan, acknowledging Tarique Rahman’s historic win and Bangladesh’s peaceful and transparent election process.
Asia Pacific Newslog 