Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won her fifth term in the position with an overwhelming majority as the opposition party boycotted the election.
An Election Commission spokesperson said that Hasina's ruling Awami League "won the election" during the early hours of Monday. The announcement came after a vote that initial reports suggested had a turnout as low as 40%.
Sheikh Hasina Wins Bangladesh Election
Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a nation that had previously been beset by grinding poverty. However, her government has received widespread accusations of rampant human rights abuses and has been the subject of a ruthless opposition crackdown.
The prime minister's party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies. This was part of an apparent effort to avoid the legislature being called a one-party institution.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and refused to participate in what they called a "sham election" along with dozens of others. The party's ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, as per The Guardian.
While the final result and exact numbers of the Bangladesh election will be formally announced later at a ceremony on Monday, election commission officials said that Hasina's party had won roughly three-quarters of the seats. This meant that the Awami League had at least 220 of the total 300 seats.
However, support from other lawmakers, including from allied parties, could push the Awami League's control over parliament even higher. The 76-year-old prime minister had called for citizens to show faith in the democratic process.
In a statement after casting her vote, Hasina said that the BNP is a "terrorist organization," adding that she has been trying her best to ensure that democracy would continue in the country.
Opposition Party Boycotts Vote
The people of the country had largely turned away from the vote on Sunday as initial signs suggested the low turnout. This came despite widespread efforts of carrot-and-stick inducements that sought to bolster the poll's legitimacy among the citizens, according to Aljazeera.
The secretary of the Election Commission, Jahangir Alam said that voting was canceled at the centers due to irregularities. Badiul Alam Majumder, an independent election observer and civil society activist said that he did not consider the vote a "proper election at all."
Majumder said that the recent election had a seriously low turnout, which is probably the lowest that he had ever seen in his life. He added that his organization did not officially monitor the vote that was held in Bangladesh this year.
Hasina's victory in the election comes as she is considered to be the longest current-serving female leader in the world. She ruled Bangladesh between 1996 and 2001 and returned to office in 2009 and has been the prime minister since.
A columnist and political analyst, Kamal Ahmed said that whoever the people of the nation vote for, it would be in the Awami League's favor. This is the reason that he said that the latest poll was not a "real election." He added that it does not reflect the people's voice or people's mind, said the Financial Times.
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