SHEIKH Hasina Led Alliance Massively Wins Bangladesh Parliamentary Election.
| THE alliance dominated by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League has won Parliamentary elections with thumping majority with elections of malpractices made by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Hasina is set for a record fourth term in office in the South Asian Muslim-majority nation of 160 million. Backed by economic development. .In the alliance has won 287 seats to enable Sheikh Hasina,71, to retain power since January 2009.BBC reports Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured her third consecutive term with a landslide victory, Bangladesh’s Election Commission said on Monday. Her ruling party and its allies have won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats contested, surpassing its previous election wins. Three-hundred seats were up for grabs in the 350-member parliament, or Jatiya Sangshad, in Sunday’s elections. Another 50 seats are reserved for women. An ALL-led coalition won a massive 288 seats, while the main opposition alliance dominated by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured just six. In the last elections four years ago, which were boycotted by the BNP, the AL had won 234 seats. A party needs 151 seats to form a government..The opposition has condemned the vote as “farcical,” marred by violence, intimidation and vote rigging claims. They won just seven seats and have demanded a new vote. Bangladesh’s parliament has 350 seats in total, 50 of which are reserved for women and allotted proportional to the overall vote.”We urge the election commission to void this farcical result immediately,” opposition leader Kamal Hossain said.”We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible.”Sheikh Hasina Wazed is the current and 10th Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She is the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh. The daughter of Bangladesh’s first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched political career four decades ago. Bangladesh Election Commission told Reuters news agency that it had heard vote-rigging allegations from “across the country” and would investigate. At least 17 people have been killed in clashes between ruling party supporters and the opposition. Yogita Limaye of BBC News reports:” As we went from polling booth to polling booth on Sunday, one pattern became clear. People who were supporters of Prime Minister Hasina’s party were vocal, and happy to answer our questions on camera, about what issues they’d voted on. The others were mostly too scared to speak out. One man told us that several members of his extended family found that their votes had already been cast when they went to the polling booth. He said he didn’t think it was a fair election but didn’t want to be identified.” Hasina, who has headed the AL since 1981, went into the polls on the back of a decade of impressive GDP growth and booming garment exports. Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest exporter of garments in the world. She has ensured payment of minimum wages to workers.BNP says “We reject the farcical election and want the election commission to hold a fresh election under a non-partisan administration,” said Kamal Hossain, an 82-year-old jurist who wrote the country’s secular constitution. Hasina, who has headed the AL since 1981, went into the polls on the back of a decade of impressive GDP growth and booming garment exports. Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest exporter of garments after China. She has been applauded internationally for hosting nearly one million Rohingya refugees who took shelter in Bangladesh after fleeing a brutal military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar. But critics have accused Hasina of authoritarianism and crippling the opposition. Her bitter political rival and leader of the BNP, Khaleda Zia, 73, is serving a 17-year jail term for corruption, reports AJ Jazeera. Voting in the capital, Dhaka, was largely peaceful as convoys of soldiers and paramilitary forces were on the streets, where most traffic was banned.At least 17 people were killed across the country in clashes between members of rival parties on Sunday despite the deployment of around 600,000 security personnel to prevent violence.(pic courtesy to Sangbad) |
