After a gap of two decades, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is set to return to state power.
In the 13th national parliamentary election, the Election Commission (EC) announced unofficial results showing that BNP won 209 of the 297 seats declared so far on its own. The results were announced Friday afternoon at the Election Commission building in Agargaon by EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed.
This marks the first time BNP contested a national election under the leadership of its current chairman, Tarique Rahman. He has also been elected a Member of Parliament for the first time, winning from two constituencies—Dhaka and Bogura. According to BNP, as leader of the majority party, Tarique Rahman is set to become the next prime minister of Bangladesh.
After spending 17 years in political exile in London, Tarique Rahman returned to Dhaka on December 25. A few days after the death of his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, on December 30, he formally assumed the role of party chairman.
Out of 300 parliamentary seats, a party requires at least 151 to form a government. With 209 seats, BNP is poised to form the next government with a comfortable majority. The party last formed a government in 2001, when it won 195 seats and led a coalition with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
In this election, however, Jamaat-e-Islami emerged as BNP’s principal rival. Jamaat suffered a heavy defeat, winning 68 of the 297 declared seats. Its ally, the National Citizen Party (NCP), secured six seats, while Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis won two.
Additionally, Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Gono Odhikar Parishad, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Ganosamhati Andolon and Khelafat Majlis each won one seat. Independent candidates secured seven seats.
The EC said the results of two constituencies in Chattogram will not be gazetted until appeals related to loan default cases are resolved in the High Court. In Chattogram-2 (Fatikchhari) and Chattogram-4 (Sitakunda), BNP candidates Sarwar Alamgir and Aslam Chowdhury were unofficially declared winners. Meanwhile, voting in Sherpur-3 has been postponed following the death of a candidate.
Elections previously won by BNP
Founded by late president Ziaur Rahman, BNP won 207 of 298 seats in the second parliamentary election in 1979. After Ziaur Rahman’s assassination, Khaleda Zia took over the party’s leadership.
Following a nine-year anti-Ershad movement, BNP formed the government in 1991 by winning 140 seats with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami. Khaleda Zia became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister.
BNP briefly formed a government after winning the February 15, 1996 election. However, it was defeated by the Awami League in the June 1996 polls.
The party returned to power again in the 2001 election under Khaleda Zia’s leadership.
How BNP is returning to power
This is the first time Tarique Rahman directly led BNP in a national election. Under his leadership, the party secured a two-thirds majority and is returning to power after two decades. He assumed the role of chairman just one month before the election, following his mother’s death.
At the end of the BNP-led four-party alliance government’s tenure in 2006, a severe political crisis erupted over the appointment of the chief adviser to the caretaker government.
The Awami League and its allies rejected the appointment of Justice K M Hasan as chief adviser, escalating political tensions. On October 29, 2006, then president Iajuddin Ahmed assumed the role himself.
Violence and instability persisted, and on January 11, 2007, a military-backed caretaker government took power.
In March 2007, Tarique Rahman was arrested on corruption charges. After spending about 18 months in prison, he was released in September 2008 and relocated to London with his family, from where he gradually became active in party affairs while in exile.
Earlier, on June 22, 2002, BNP had created the post of senior joint secretary general and appointed Tarique Rahman to the position. In 2009, at the party’s fifth national council, he was elected senior vice chairman.
After Khaleda Zia was imprisoned in 2018 following a corruption conviction, Tarique Rahman served as the party’s acting chairman from London.
Statistics of the 13th national parliament election
A total of 50 political parties participated in the 13th national parliamentary election. There were 2,028 candidates contesting 299 seats, including 1,755 party candidates and 273 independents.
Among them, 1,946 were male—1,692 party candidates and 253 independents—while 83 were female, including 63 party candidates and 20 independents.
BNP fielded the highest number of candidates, contesting 291 seats. Islami Andolon Bangladesh nominated 258 candidates, while Jamaat-e-Islami fielded 229. The Jatiya Party (JaPa) contested 198 seats. In addition, 274 independent candidates took part.
According to the EC, voter turnout in the parliamentary election stood at 59.44%.
On the same day, a referendum on the implementation of the July Charter was held. In the referendum, 48,074,429 voters cast ballots in favour (“Yes”), while 22,565,627 voted against (“No”). Voter turnout for the referendum across 299 constituencies was 60.26%.
