Bangladesh Polls: Sheikh Hasina wins 5th term as Prime Minister

The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League scored a resounding victory in Sunday's parliamentary polls, winning 222 out of 300 Parliamentary seats so far, enabling the veteran leader to return to form government for the fourth straight term.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said that the turnout for the 12th national Parliamentary polls was 41.8%. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party had boycotted the polls calling it a "sham."

With 222 seats, the Awami League is set to form a government for a fourth consecutive term. This will be Hasina's fifth stint as Bangladesh's prime minister. Independent candidates won 62 seats, the second highest in the elections. The Jatiya Party, the opposition in the last two parliaments, won only 11 seats. Polling in two seats had been suspended.


On Monday in a show of support, envoys of India, Russia and China met Hasina and congratulated her on the victory. Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pranay Verma was the first to call on her and conveyed PM Narendra Modi's congratulatory message. Later PM Modi also spoke to Hasina. "Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh," Modi wrote on X.

Meanwhile, foreign observers including those from USA, Canada and Russia, who witnessed the 12th general election of Bangladesh on Sunday, termed the polls as free, fair, peaceful, successful and legitimate.