Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladesh’s February 12 election has delivered a landslide victory for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which will now form the first elected government since the July 2024 mass uprising that toppled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party.While the election, from which the former governing Awami League was banned, has been viewed as something of a litmus test for political change in Bangladesh, observers say the overwhelming election of the BNP, one of just two parties which have held power continuously since independence in 1971, shows Bangladeshis may prefer to stick with what they know.On Friday, the Election Commission released unofficial results showing the BNP winning 209 seats out of 297 already announced; Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami with 68; the National Citizen Party (NCP) with six; smaller parties, a handful of seats; and independents with seven seats.In all, 299 of the 300 elected seats in parliament were up for grabs in this election. Turnout was about 60 percent.Registered voters also voted in a referendum to approve constitutional reforms, with just more than 60 percent voting “yes” for the July National Charter outlining those reforms.Final official results are still pending, but Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP’s secretary-general, hailed the sweeping election victory as evidence that the BNP is “a party of the people”. The party expects to form a government on Sunday.On Friday night, Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNP’s main o …
