Awami League all set to form govt for fourth consecutive term

Awami League is all set to form the government for consecutive fourth term with an absolute majority. Unofficial results of 297 seats out of 299 that went to polls yesterday have been available. Of these seats, AL has won 223 while independent candidates have won 62 seats.

Most of these independent candidates are AL leaders. Syed Ekramuzzaman, who was suspended from BNP, won in Brahmanbaria-1 (Nasirnagar) and Mohammad Husamuddin Chowdhury, who contested as independent from Sylhet-5 (Kanaighat and Zakiganj) also won.

Jatiya Party, which is the opposition party in the current parliament, has so far won in 11 seats. Jatiya Party, which has earned the epithet of 'domesticated opposition party' in the current parliament, had compromised on 26 seats with the ruling party Awami League in this election as well. They did not win any single seat outside these 26.

AL left 6 seats to its 14-party alliance partners. The allies contested with AL’s electoral symbol 'boat' in these seats and won in two. Apart from this, Bangladesh Kalyan Party's Syed Muhammad Ibrahim has won in Cox's Bazar-1 (Chakaria-Pekua) seat.

The voting in the 12th parliamentary election took place in 299 constituencies of the country from 8:00am to 4:00pm yesterday. Voting in Naogaon-2 constituency was suspended due to the death of a candidate. At the end of the day's polling, Election Commission (EC) secretary Md. Jahangir Alam announced the result at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city. Full results of each constituency could be obtained from his announcement. In the early morning, he concluded the announcement of the results saying that the results of 298 constituencies had been announced.

Out of the 44 political parties registered in the EC, 28 participated in this election. AL's main political rival BNP and several other opposition parties boycotted the election. AL’s easy win was on the cards even before the election as the parties that participated in the polls were not capable enough to challenge the ruling party.

Awami League and its allies won 153 seats unopposed in the 2014 elections boycotted by BNP. That election was controversial. So, the AL was careful this time so that no one gets elected unopposed this time and encouraged its leaders to field candidacy as independent candidates.

Prime Minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 constituency securing 249,962 votes. His nearest rival M Nizamuddin Laskar of Bangladesh Supreme Party got 869 votes.

Deputy speaker of parliament Matia Chowdhury, speaker Shireen Sharmin Chowdhury, AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, senior leaders Tofail Ahmed and Amir Hossain Amu, finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, planning minister MA Mannan, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, information and broadcast minister Hasan Mahmud, commerce minister Tipu Munshi, local government minister Tajul Islam, deputy speaker Shamsul Haque are the other important candidates who won the election.
Deputy leader of the opposition in parliament and Jatiya Party chairman GM Quader also won. Asaduzzaman Noor has won for the fifth consecutive term.

Cricketer Shakib Al Hasan and actor Ferdous Ahmed also secured victory.