Hasina gets her fourth prime ministerial term in a row as her party wins a majority in the B'desh polls

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a record fourth straight term on Sunday as her Awami League party won two-thirds of seats in a general election marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies .

Hasina's party won 200 seats in the 300-seat parliament, with counting still underway after the end of day-long voting on Sunday.

“We can declare the Awami League winner with the results already available, but the final announcement will be made after the end of counting of votes in the rest of the constituencies, an Election Commission spokesperson told reporters.

Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. She polled 249,965 votes, while her nearest rival Nizam Uddin Lashkar of the Bangladesh Supreme Party polled only 469 votes.

The 76-year-old leader, who has ruled the strategically located South Asian country since 2009, won a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall in the one-sided election, which witnessed a low turnout.

Meanwhile, BNP Standing Committee members described the twelfth parliamentary election as bogus.

Standing Committee Member Abdul Moyeen Khan said: This is not an election. These are bogus elections. The report on these elections will appear in all media at home and abroad.

About the party's post-election programmes, he said: “We have to wait a day for the post-election programme. The BNP is struggling to restore people's democratic rights through peaceful movements involving people. Until this right is realized, the BNP will continue the systematic struggle on the streets.

He alleged that the BNP leaders had collected photographs from various polling stations since the polling started in the morning and there were no voters.

First print: January 8, 2024 | 12:05 pm IST