Politics News

BNP wins a landslide in Bangladesh's first election since the 2024 uprising

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party won a landslide in the national election held on Thursday, February 12, the first since the 2024 student-led uprising. Al Jazeera said the BNP-led alliance won 212 seats and the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance 77, out of 297 results announced. Voting was held for 299 seats, and 50 reserved seats are allocated by vote share. Turnout was 59.88%, the Election Commission said, and 60.26% of voters backed the July Charter, a package of more than 80 governance reforms. Sheikh Hasina's Awami League was barred from taking part.

“I firmly believe that national unity is a collective strength, while division is a weakness.” — Tarique Rahman, via Al Jazeera

Rahman, 60, is expected to become prime minister. Gulf News recalled that he returned in December after 17 years of self-exile in London, the same month his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, died. It reported that clashes during the campaign killed five people and injured more than 600, and that Hasina, who is in India and has been sentenced to death in absentia, called the vote an “illegal and unconstitutional election.”

Dhaka's Prothom Alo followed Rahman's own seats: he won Dhaka-17 by 4,399 votes over Jamaat's S M Khaliduzzaman, and led Bogura-6 with 216,284 votes in a partial count.

How each outlet framed it

• Al Jazeera — who won and what next: Jamaat said it was “not satisfied” with the process but will sit in opposition, and parties disagree on a new upper chamber.
• Gulf News — the comeback story, the violence and Hasina's rejection from exile.
• Prothom Alo — the constituency detail: a close race in the capital and a wide win in Bogura.

Where the numbers differ: Gulf News, citing Jamuna TV projections, put the Jamaat-led coalition at 70 seats; Al Jazeera's later count gave it 77.