The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability after months of tumult \u200bfollowing the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising. Latest counts in an election \u200bseen as the South Asian nation’s first truly competitive in \u2060years gave the BNP and its allies at least 212 of the 299 seats up for grabs, domestic TV channels said. The opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies won 70 \u200bseats in the Jatiya Sangsad, \u200cor House of the Nation. The BNP, which returns to power after 20 years, thanked the people soon after winning a majority in the overnight vote count and called for special prayers on Friday for the nation and its people. “Despite \u200bwinning … by a large margin of votes, no celebratory procession or rally shall be organised,” the party said in a statement calling for prayers nationwide. A clear outcome had been seen as key for stability in the Muslim-majori
ty nation of 175 million after months of deadly anti-Hasina \u200cunrest disrupted everyday life and industries \u200csuch as garments, in the export \u200bof which Bangladesh is No.2 globally. BNP leader Tarique Rahman is widely expected to be sworn in as prime minister. The son of the party’s founder, former president Ziaur Rahman, he returned in December to the capital, Dhaka, from 18 years abroad. Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 85, held office as interim head after Hasina fled to neighbouring India in August 2024. Now in \u200bexile in New Delhi, Hasina long dominated Bangladesh politics along with Rahman’s mother, Khaleda Zia, while his father was a leading independence figure who ruled from 1977 to 1981 before he was assassinated. Manual counting of paper ballots will run until at least noon on Friday, officials said, since starting on Thursday immediately \u200bafter polls closed. The BNP win with more than 200 seats is one of its biggest, surpassing its 2001 victory with 193, although Hasin
a’s Awami League, which ruled for 15 years and was barred from contesting this time, ssecured a bigger tally of 230 in 2008. But bigger tallies for both parties in elections of other years were widely seen as one-sided, boycotted or contentious. JAMAAT PROMISES POSITIVE OPPOSITION Nightime throngs of supporters cheered and shouted slogans at \u200cthe BNP headquarters in Dhaka as the scale of the party’s landslide became clear. The head of its main rival, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, conceded defeat and vowed that his party would not engage in the “politics of opposition” just for the sake of doing so. “We will do \u2060positive politics,” Shafiqur Rahman told reporters. However, the \u200bNational Citizen Party (NCP), led by youth activists who played a key role in toppling Hasina and was a part of the Jamaat-led alliance, won just five of the 30 seats it contested. Turnout appeared on track to exceed the 42% of the last election in 2024, with media sayi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability after months of tumult \u200bfollowing the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising. Latest counts in an election \u200bseen as the South Asian nation’s first truly competitive in \u2060years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n