Jan 7, 2024 at 9:21 PM Update: an hour ago
Current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh on Sunday. Hasina, 76, has been in power in the country with around 170 million inhabitants since 2009. She is now preparing for a fifth term in office.
Hasina’s government is regularly criticized. For example, she is accused of serious human rights violations and of suppressing the opposition in the country. The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has boycotted the elections.
In late October, opposition leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was charged with murder after a police officer was killed during a violent protest.
The Awami League, of which Hasina is chairman, won “more than half of the seats” in parliament, an election commission spokesman said hours after polling stations closed.
Voter turnout was estimated at 40 percent earlier today. Many residents said they would not vote because they believed the outcome was predetermined. At the previous elections in 2018, there was approximately 80 percent turnout.
The elections were overshadowed by violence. Supporters of an independent candidate in a district near the capital Dhaka stabbed a supporter of the Awami Muslim League, the election commission reports.
According to police, two bombs exploded near a polling station in Dhaka. Four people were injured. And in Tangail district, ballot boxes were stolen and set on fire, prompting police to open fire. Two people were injured.
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Bangladesh opposition leader charged with murder
Image: ANP
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2024-01-07 20:21:53
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