DHAKA: Bangladesh recorded a low voter turnout in general election on Sunday that poised to keep the ruling party in power as the opposition shunned the polls.
According to the Election Commission of the country around 119 million people, or 70 % of the total population, were registered to vote in more than 42,000 stations throughout the country.
Approximately 700,000 security officials were deployed to guard the polling process, while around 200 foreign observers monitored the general elections.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured re-election for a fifth term in Bangladesh, officials confirmed.
With more than a third of the 300 seats announced, preliminary results suggest Hasina’s Awami League and its allies have secured at least 85%.
The ruling Awami League faced no major rivals as the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies boycotted the Sunday’s vote.
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The development came after the incumbent government rejected the BNP’s monthslong demand to have a neutral caretaker setup to administer the election.
Bangladesh’s Election Commission chief, Kazi Habibul Awal, said the voter turnout was around 40%.
He told media that this was the dependable estimate of the turnout. Is pertinent to mention that at the 2018 election, Bangladesh’s overall voter turnout was at more than 80%.
The opposition’s leader, Tarique Rahman, in exile in Britain, expressed fears of “fake votes” influencing the turnout, describing the unfolding events as a “disgrace” to the democratic ideals of Bangladesh.
