Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s coalition won Bangladesh’s election with a landslide victory, the country’s Election Commission said on Monday morning, giving her a third consecutive term after a vote the opposition rejected as rigged.
The commission said the coalition dominated by Hasina’s Awami League, which is seen as close to regional power India, won 287 of the 298 seats for which results have been declared in the 300-strong parliament.
The ruling coalition won 287 out of 298 seats.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted the last election in 2014, won just six seats.
Hasina’s victory cemented her decade-long rule over Bangladesh, where she is credited with reforming the economy and promoting growth but also accused of widespread human rights abuses, a crackdown on media and suppressing dissent. Is charged. She denies such allegations.
Party leaders have said raising the minimum wage for workers in Bangladesh’s huge textile industry, the world’s second largest after China, could be one of his first tasks after taking office. Hasina will meet foreign journalists and election observers at her official residence on Monday.
“The entire election was completely manipulated,” Hussain, 82, said at his residence in the capital Dhaka late on Sunday night. It should be cancelled.” Candidates have reported tampering with ballot papers and witnessing vote rigging by ruling party workers, who have also prevented opposition polling agents from going to polling stations, Hussain said.
Hundreds of opposition activists were arrested in the months before the election on charges the opposition described as “fanciful”, and many said ruling party workers had attacked them, preventing them from campaigning. Capacity was affected.
Hasina’s government has denied the allegations and her party says several of its own workers have been injured in opposition attacks. Police said seven ruling party workers and five BNP workers were killed and 20 injured on election day.
Reuters journalists across Bangladesh observed low turnout at polling stations and some voters alleged that ruling party workers had prevented them from entering booths, saying their ballots had already been cast. Ruling party campaign posters dominated the streets in many parts of Dhaka.
This was the first election in which the BNP campaigned without its leader Khaleda Zia – Hasina’s arch rival. The two women have taken turns in power for most of the past three decades, but Khaleda has been in jail since February on corruption charges she says are politically motivated.
The Election Commission said it would conduct fresh polling for the seat where voting was marred by violence. Another constituency, where a candidate died a few days before the elections, will also go to polls in the next few days.
Hasina’s son Wajed told Reuters on the eve of the election that the next government would try to raise Bangladesh’s growth rate from 7.8 percent to 10 percent in the 2017/18 fiscal year.