Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won an overwhelming two-thirds majority in the general elections. Tarique will become the first male Prime Minister of the country in 35 years. While the Jamaat-e-Islami conceded defeat, its ally National Citizen Party alleged tampering of election results and an audit before the final declaration.
This is the first election since the July 2024 uprising that ended former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule. The Bangladesh election involved more than 127 million eligible voters in the nation of around 170 million people, with 1,981 candidates contesting across 299 parliamentary seats nationwide, according to the Election Commission of Bangladesh (ECB). Voting was cancelled in one constituency due to the death of a candidate.
The country’s political landscape has for decades revolved around two rival dynasties. On one side is the Awami League, headed by Hasina, and on the other is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, now led by Tarique Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December. Challenging the BNP is a broad 11-party coalition spearheaded by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, which is now emerging as the main opposition in the country.
The Bangladesh general election – the first since violence in July 2024 ended then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s long tenure and forced her to flee – is set to deliver a big win for the Tarique Rahman-led BNP and script a fairytale ending for the man whose critics call him the ‘dark prince’.
