Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairman, Tarek Rehman, won the Bogra-6 and Dhaka-17 seats by huge margins, provisional results in the country’s local media show.
Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Party Chairperson Tariq Rahman waves as he leaves after voting in the national parliamentary elections in Dhaka on Thursday. (AP)As per the provisional figures, Tariq Rahman contesting with a grain of rice secured 216,284 votes in Bogra-6 seat, Daily Star reported. His nearest rival Jamaat-e-Islami’s Abidur Rahman Sohail, who contested on the symbol of the scales, got 97,626 votes.
The margin of victory for the successor to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia stood at 118,658 votes over her nearest rival.
Officials quoted in the Daily Star report said the announcement was made on the basis of counting center results pending final gazette notification.
In a PTI report quoting Bangladesh Election Commission officials, BNP Chairman Rahman Rahman also won from Dhaka-17 seat.
In July a referendum on the implementation of a complex 84-point reform package known as the National Charter was held as well as voting for Bangladesh’s 13th parliamentary elections.
Counting of votes began soon after polling ended at 4:30 pm (local time). However, wherever voters were in line inside the polling station, voting continued until they cast their ballots.
In the absence of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s now splintered Awami League, the election is seen as a direct contest between the BNP and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami.
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Mahdi Amin, spokesman for BNP’s election management committee, said his party’s victory was “inevitable and clear”.
Tariq Rahman, unlike ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was seen as aligned with New Delhi, has pledged to recalibrate Bangladesh’s international partnerships to attract investment without tying the country too closely to any single power.
He also proposed expanding financial assistance to poor families, reducing dependence on garment exports by promoting industries such as toys and leather goods, and introducing a two-term, 10-year limit for prime ministers to curb autocratic tendencies.
