Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina secures fourth straight term as her Awami League wins two-thirds majority in polls

Dhaka, January 7

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won two-thirds of the seats in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies.

Hasina’s party won 200 seats in the 300-seat parliament while counting is still underway after the end of the day-long voting on Sunday.

“We can call Awami League winner with the already available results but the final announcement will be made after the end of the counting of votes in the rest of the constituencies,” an election commission spokesman told reporters.

Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. She bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.

The 76-year-old leader, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed a low turnout. PTI