Bangladesh - January 2024
Sheikh Hasina secures fourth straight term in general election
On 7 January, Sheikh Hasina secured her fourth consecutive term as prime minister when her party, the Awami League (AL), won 223 of 300 parliamentary seats. Independent candidates, most of them allied to AL won 62 seats, while the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the vote. The Chief Election Commissioner reported voter turnout was 40.99 per cent, compared with 80.00 per cent in the last election in 2018. Preliminary results indicate that despite a record high 5.1 per cent of female candidates, only 20 out of 299 contested seats were won by women (a decrease from 22 in 2018), with an additional 50 reserved seats for women to be determined in March. The election was marred by violence and repression of opposition candidates and supporters in the lead-up to and on election day. Voting irregularities were reported across several polling centres, causing voting there to be postponed. Independent election monitors from the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) noted that the elections were “neither genuine nor competitive.”
Sources: ANFREL (1), ANFREL (2), The Dhaka Tribune, IPU, Bangladesh Parliament, Reuters
