Bangladesh election: BNP wins historic first election since overthrow of Hasina | Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Tarique Rahman, won a landslide victory in the country’s first elections since the Gen Z uprising toppled Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime.
Results from the election commission confirmed that the BNP alliance returned to power after 20 years, winning 212 seats, while its rival Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami won 70 seats.
The vote was seen as the first free and fair election in Bangladesh in almost two decades and followed a period of significant political turmoil in the country.
“This victory was expected,” said Salahuddin Ahmed, a leading member of the BNP committee. “It is not surprising that the people of Bangladesh have faith in a party that can realize the dreams that our youth dreamed of during the uprising.”
Ahmed acknowledged that a difficult task awaits the new BNP government, which has promised a new era of democracy and zero tolerance for corruption. “This is not a time for celebration as we face increasing challenges in building a country free of discrimination,” he said.
India was among the first countries to congratulate the BNP. Relations between the two neighbors have fallen sharply since Hasina’s fall, and the Indian prime minister’s message congratulating the BNP on its “decisive” victory appeared to extend an olive branch to the new government.
“India will continue to support a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh,” Modi said, adding that he looked forward to working with Rahman.
The USA and Pakistan also congratulated the BNP on its election victory.
Rahman, who returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in London, is now preparing to become the country’s next prime minister. He comes from one of the country’s most powerful political dynasties; He is the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and former president Ziaur Rahman, who were assassinated in 1981.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafikur Rahman admitted defeat. Rahman said Jamaat would not engage in “opposition politics” just for the sake of it. “We will do positive politics,” he told reporters.
In a statement on Friday morning, Jamaat-e-Islami claimed that there were some irregularities in the vote counting in the constituencies where its candidates had very narrow losses and said that this “raises serious questions about the integrity of the result process”.
However, the results claiming 70 seats for Jamaat-e-Islami are a historic showing for a party that has never before held more than 18 seats in parliament, and their alliance is likely to be a formidable opposition to the BNP. Their campaign sparked controversy, especially among female voters, due to Shafikur Rahman’s reactionary comments on women’s rights and employment.
The election was the first truly competitive vote in years. As documented by human rights groups and the UN, Hasina’s regime routinely suppressed dissent from her critics and political opponents, with thousands of them disappearing, tortured, and killed in secret prisons. Many of them emerged only after Hasina was ousted. The last three elections under Hasina were marred by widespread allegations of vote rigging.
Following the bloody uprising that led to his downfall, many saw the election as a key test of Bangladesh’s ability to restore confidence in democracy and move from popular protest to substantive political reform and stability. Hasina’s Awami League party was banned from contesting and its supporters said they would boycott the vote.
The fact that the election day was largely peaceful was seen as a major step forward for the country. Across the capital, police officers stood guard on horses wearing blankets bearing the message “The police are here, vote without fear.” Voters at the polls in the capital Dhaka stated that they were happy to be able to vote freely and without fear for the first time in years.
Saying that he supports BNP, 46-year-old Muhammad Shah Hossain said, “The last time I voted was in 2008.” “After that it became very difficult to go out and vote. Every time I went to the polls, someone had already voted.”
Preliminary figures showed voter turnout nationwide at 59.4%, surpassing the 42% seen in the last election, according to the electoral commission. This was also the first election to give the overseas diaspora the opportunity to vote. The participation rate in postal voting, which included officials who could not return to their country to vote, was 80.11%.
The student-led uprising that toppled Hasina’s 15-year regime in August 2024 was fueled by growing anger over widespread corruption, human rights abuses and economic stagnation. The uprising and Hasina’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters led to an estimated 1,400 deaths, according to the UN.
The country has been ruled for the past 18 months by an interim government headed by Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, who has been tasked with preparing the country for free and fair elections. Speaking after casting his vote in Dhaka, Yunus said the country “ended the nightmare and started a new dream”.
The newly elected government now faces the difficult task of restoring democracy, law, order and economic growth in the country. For some, the return of the BNP, a dynastic party whose previous regime was riddled with widespread corruption, did not represent the spirit of reform and hunger for change that led to the student-led uprising against Hasina.
“More than anything, I hope this BNP government remembers why people risked their lives to vote; we didn’t just want faces to change, we wanted the fear to end,” said Sadia Chowdhury, 25, a postgraduate student at Jahangirnagar University.
“If they give us jobs based on merit, curb political violence, and prove that the law applies to everyone, then maybe we can feel like this country belongs to us again.”
Alongside the election, a referendum was held on a series of constitutional reforms supported by Younis, known as the July Charter, designed to prevent future autocratic regimes from coming to power by strengthening judicial independence and imposing a two-term limit on the prime minister. Preliminary results showed that the law passed with more than 65% yes votes.
As the elections progressed, Hasina remained in exile in India after a war crimes tribunal sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity committed during the final throes of her regime. His escape and India’s refusal to send him back became a major issue in the frayed relations between Dhaka and New Delhi. In a statement after the polls closed, Hasina condemned the election as a “carefully planned farce” and called for the results to be annulled.
Redwan Ahmed contributed reporting from Dhaka
