Bangladesh Elections: Sheikh Hasina won a landslide victory for the fourth consecutive time in Bangladesh elections.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won a fourth consecutive term as her Awami League party registered a landslide victory in the general elections, which were boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies. Sporadic violence occurred before the elections, including the burning of polling stations and schools. With this victory, Hasina is on track to become the longest serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh since the country’s independence. Hasina’s party has so far won 224 seats out of the 300-seat Bangladesh Parliament, with counting of votes still underway on two seats. Till now the results of 298 seats have been declared.

The Awami League has won 224 seats so far, 62 constituencies have gone to independent candidates, and the Jatiya Party has won four seats. Another party has won one seat.“We can call Awami League the winner based on the results already available, but the final announcement will be made after the counting of votes in the remaining constituencies is over,” an Election Commission spokesperson told reporters.

Hasina won from Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. He got 2,49,965 votes, while his nearest rival Bangladesh Supreme Party’s M Nizam Uddin Lashkar got just 469 votes.

Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, won a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall in the one-sided election that saw a modest turnout of 40 percent. However, Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Habibul Awal had earlier said that the voting figures could change after the final count.

The BNP, led by former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, said the party plans to intensify its anti-government agitation through a peaceful public participation program from Tuesday as it termed the elections as “fraudulent”. The BNP also boycotted the 2014 elections, but joined in in 2018. This time, apart from BNP, 15 other political parties boycotted the elections.

Opposition party leaders claimed that the low turnout was proof that their boycott movement had been successful. He said that peaceful democratic protest programs will be given momentum and through this program people’s right to vote will be established.

Meanwhile, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Qadir claimed that the people of Bangladesh rejected the election boycott of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami by casting their votes. Quader said, “I sincerely thank those who braved the fear of vandalism, arson and terrorism to participate in the 12th national parliamentary elections.”

Jatiyo Party President GM Quader won the Rangpur-3 seat in the 12th National Parliamentary Elections. The overall voter turnout in the 2018 general elections was more than 80 percent.

Despite a largely peaceful turnout in this year’s vote, authorities and Bangladesh’s mainstream media reported at least 18 arson attacks across the country since late Friday, 10 of which targeted polling sites.

Earlier, an Election Commission spokesperson said that apart from some isolated incidents of violence, polling was largely peaceful in 299 out of 300 constituencies. The Commission suspended voting on one seat due to the death of a candidate. The Election Commission canceled the candidature of a candidate of the ruling Awami League in north-eastern Chattogram after he “scolded and threatened” a police officer at the end of the voting period.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with her daughter Saima Wajed cast her vote at the Dhaka City College polling station soon after voting began on Sunday. Hasina alleged that the opposition BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance does not believe in democracy. “People will vote as per their wish. And we were able to create an atmosphere of voting. However, the BNP-Jamaat alliance has carried out several incidents including arson attacks,” he told reporters.