Bangladesh election: BNP claims win after 2024 uprising, vote turnout 59.44%

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Bangladesh’s Nationalist Party said it has won the country’s first election since the 2024 uprising, with the party positioning itself to form the next government as the Election Commission prepared to publish official results. The Election Commission said voter turnout in Thursday’s vote was 59.44%, and that more than 127 million people were eligible to vote.

The Election Commission had not yet released the final parliamentary tally, but several local media outlets reported that the BNP crossed the 151-seat threshold needed for a majority in the 350-member parliament. The BNP’s media unit said on X on Friday that it had secured enough seats to govern on its own, according to the report.

Election Commission senior secretary Akhter Ahmed said the vote included a constitutional reforms proposal and that a majority of voters backed it. Ahmed said the proposal included prime ministerial term limits and stronger checks on executive power, and that the authorities would publish official notifications “soon,” the report said.

The BNP is led by Tarique Rahman, the party’s prime ministerial candidate. The report said Rahman returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in self-exile in London and that he is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December.

Rahman’s campaign said it would be a quieter response than past political celebrations. Saleh Shibly, press secretary to Rahman, said the BNP leader called on supporters to hold special prayers during the weekly Friday service and not to hold celebratory rallies or processions, according to the report.

The contest was largely a two-way race between the BNP and an 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that has grown in influence and has drawn concerns among women and minority communities, the report said. Despite falling short of a majority, the alliance made an impact, with local TV channels reporting it secured at least 77 seats.

Shafiqur Rahman, who heads Jamaat-e-Islami, secured a seat in Dhaka and was described in the report as poised to become the opposition leader in Parliament. Jamaat-e-Islami raised objections to how results were handled, with the party saying on Facebook that the Election Commission delayed announcing results in several constituencies and calling the holdups “unusual.”

The report also said the National Citizen Party, formed by student leaders of the uprising before later aligning with the Jamaat-e-Islami-led coalition, secured victories for its chief Nahid Islam and at least three other top leaders.

International leaders sent congratulations as the outcome began to take shape. The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka congratulated Rahman and his party, calling it a “historic victory,” and U.S. Ambassador Brent T. Christensen wrote on X that the U.S. looked forward to working with the new Bangladeshi government “to achieve shared goals of prosperity and security for both our countries.” China’s embassy said it looked forward to “writing new chapters of China-Bangladesh relations” with the new government, and leaders from India and Pakistan also lauded Rahman.

The election took place under tight security amid concerns over democratic backsliding, rising political violence, and strains on the rule of law, the report said. It was also framed as a test of whether Bangladesh can restore trust in democracy after protests that culminated in Hasina’s ouster in July 2024 and prompted many to view the vote as a way to turn public demonstrations into political reform.

The report said the BNP had spent much of the previous 15 years in opposition, boycotting several elections and accusing Sheikh Hasina’s government of vote rigging and political repression. It also said Tarique Rahman spent 17 years in exile after Hasina’s government pursued cases against him, which he denied as politically motivated, and that those cases were dropped after Hasina’s government collapsed—allowing his return to Bangladesh.

Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow for South Asia at the Atlantic Council, said the outcome appears as “a blow to the spirit of the 2024 revolution,” describing the result as an opening to change but also warning the BNP would face significant pressure to govern differently. He said the BNP “will need to be on its toes,” according to the report.