Prime Minister Hasina emerges as the winner of the parliamentary election in Bangladesh. The country’s largest opposition party did not take part in protest and called for a boycott of the election.
In the controversial parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a fifth term in office. As the election commission officially confirmed, Hasina’s ruling party Awami League won a clear victory with 223 of the 300 parliamentary seats. According to the commission, voter turnout was 41.8 percent.
Because the largest opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotted the election, the Awami League’s victory was foreseeable in advance – and thus a fifth term in office for the 76-year-old Hasina.
Thousands opposition politician arrested
In the months before the election, the authorities in the South Asian country took massive action against the opposition. According to the BNP, its entire party leadership and approximately 25,000 other politicians were arrested. Tens of thousands more went into hiding. The government stated the number of opposition activists arrested was 11,000.
According to experts, the parliamentary elections effectively established a one-party system without an actual opposition in Bangladesh. Only the allies of the Awami League had the opportunity to take part in the vote, said Ali Riaz from Illinois State University to the AFP news agency.
Political expert Mubashar Hasan from the University of Oslo said: “Almost all independent candidates who won parliamentary seats also belong to the Awami League.”
Despite massive protests and criticism, Hasina described the vote as “free and fair.”