Bangladesh Rulin Party Awami League Wins Poll Hit by Violence, Boycott

On Sunday Jan 05,2014 amid heavy security in polling that lacked the festivity typical of Bangladeshi elections and was shunned by international observers as flawed.

Eighteen people were killed in separate incidents on election day, according to media reports, and voting was halted at about 400 polling stations. More than 100 people were killed in the run-up to the ballot, mostly in rural areas, and fears of violence kept many voters away.

The Awami League won 105 of the contested seats, on top of the 127 seats where it ran unopposed, giving it a more-than two-thirds majority. Hasina is expected to form a new government this month.

Low voter participation could pile new pressure on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to find a compromise with the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for holding new elections.

The BNP said low turnout vindicated its denunciation of the poll as a farce.

"The turnout is a clear indication that the common people rejected this election and it is almost an election without voters," Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, a BNP vice chairman, told on Sunday Jan 05,2014

Either Hasina or BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia has been prime minister for all but two of the past 22 years


Bangladesh Parliament Election Held on Jan 05,2014 Results
Awami League                          231
Jatiya Party                                 33
Workers Party                            06
Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal               05
Bangladesh Nationalist Front      01
Jatiya Party(Manju)                    01
Bangladesh Tarikat Federation    01
Independents                              14
Repoll Ordered                           08
Total                                        300