BNP secured 50% votes, Jamaat gets 31% in Bangladesh general election

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which swept to power with a two-thirds majority in the recent general elections, received nearly 50 per cent of the votes while its once ally the Jamaat-e-Islami secured 31.76 per cent, according to the Election Commission on Sunday.

An EC spokesman said independent candidates collectively won 5.79 per cent of the votes while "other political parties lagged far behind".

According to the EC, the BNP led by former prime minister Khaldea Zia's son Tarique Rahman secured 49.97 per cent of the votes as it bagged 209 out of 297 seats.

The right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, which was opposed to the country's 1971 independence from Pakistan, emerged as the main opposition party, registering its best ever performance as it won 68 seats.

The BNP alliance won 212 seats compared to 77 for the Jamaat alliance.

The National Citizen Party, formed by the Students Against Discrimination, which led the mass protests against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, received 3.05 per cent votes as it won just six seats.

An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus last year disbanded Hasina's Awami League, disqualifying it from the election race, thus changing the country's traditional election landscape.

The NCP was followed by Islami Andolan Bangladesh getting 2.70 per cent and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis receiving 2.09 per cent votes.

The EC earlier said 59.44 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the election.

The newly-elected Members of Parliament of Bangladesh are scheduled to take oath on Tuesday morning, followed by the swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet in the evening, local media reported.