Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won re-election for a fifth term Sunday, officials said, following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a “terrorist organisation”.

Hasina’s ruling Awami League “has won more than 50 percent seats,” an Election Commission spokesman told AFP, with counting ongoing.

She has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown.

Her party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested, but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies, an apparent effort to avoid the legislature being branded a one-party institution.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate in a “sham election”.

Hasina, 76, had called for citizens to show faith in the democratic process — but election officials said initial reports suggested a meagre turnout of some 40 percent.

“The BNP is a terrorist organisation,” she told reporters after casting her vote. “I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country.”

Media collating results from polling stations said Hasina had won more than two-thirds of seats in parliament with nearly 90 percent of results declared.

Of the 264 seats of the total 300 announced, Hasina’s Awami League had won 204 and her allied Jatiya Party nine more, according to results collated by Somoy TV, the country’s largest private news broadcaster.

Among the victors was Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh cricket team captain, who won his seat for Hasina’s party be a landslide, local officials said.

‘Disgrace’

First-time voter Amit Bose, 21, said he had cast his ballot for his “favourite candidate”, but others said they had not bothered because the outcome was assured.

“When one party is participating and another is not, why would I go to vote?” said rickshaw-puller Mohammad Saidur, 31.

BNP head Tarique Rahman, speaking from Britain where he lives in exile, told AFP he feared “fake votes” would be used to boost voter turnout.

“What unfolded was not an election, but rather a disgrace to the democratic aspirations of Bangladesh,” he wrote on social media, alleging he had seen “disturbing pictures and videos” backing his claims.

‘Fear of ‘further crackdown’

The BNP and other parties staged months of protests last year, demanding Hasina step down ahead of the vote. Officers in the port city of Chittagong broke up an opposition protest Sunday, firing shotguns and tear gas canisters.

But election officials said voting was largely peaceful, with nearly 800,000 police officers and soldiers deployed countrywide.

Meenakshi Ganguly, from Human Rights Watch, said Sunday that the government had failed to reassure opposition supporters that the polls would be fair, warning that “many fear a further crackdown”.

Politics in the world’s eighth-most populous country was long dominated by the rivalry between Hasina, the daughter of the country’s founding leader, and two-time premier Khaleda Zia, wife of a former military ruler.

Hasina has been the decisive victor since returning to power in a 2009 landslide, with two subsequent polls accompanied by widespread irregularities and accusations of rigging.

Zia, 78, was convicted of graft in 2018 and is now in ailing health at a hospital in Dhaka. BNP head Rahman is her son.

‘Dangerous combination’

Hasina has accused the BNP of arson and sabotage during last year’s protest campaign, which was mostly peaceful but saw several people killed in police confrontations.

The government’s security forces have been dogged by allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances — charges it rejects.

Economic headwinds have left many dissatisfied with Hasina’s government, after sharp spikes in food costs and months of chronic blackouts in 2022.

Pierre Prakash of the International Crisis Group said before the vote that Hasina’s government was clearly “less popular than it was a few years ago, yet Bangladeshis have little real outlet at the ballot box”.

“That is a potentially dangerous combination.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A gunfight broke out between security forces and insurgents in Manipur’s Moreh town along the India-Myanmar border on Sunday night, police said.

Hills-based insurgents attacked state police forces, who retaliated, resulting in a gunfight, a police officer said.

Further details are awaited.

The border town in Tengnoupal district had witnessed a heavy gunfight on January 2, in which six security personnel, including a BSF jawan, were injured. They were airlifted to Imphal for better treatment. Before that, the town witnessed similar gun battles since December 30.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh had last week remarked that there were “high chances” that foreign mercenaries from Myanmar were involved in the attacks in Moreh. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The men were released on Independence Day last year by the Gujarat government with the help of an obsolete law, triggering a wave of condemnation and outrage from the Opposition, activists and the civil society. Bilkis Bano said she was was not informed about the release.
Once released, the men got a hero’s welcome. Some of them were seen sharing stage with a BJP MP and MLA. One of the convicts, Radheshaym Shah, had even started practicing law, which was brought to the attention of the court during the hearing.
At the Supreme Court, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had reserved its verdict in October after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano. The court had asked the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit the original records related to the remission.
The Gujarat government had allowed the men to walk free on basis of a 1992 remission policy, which has since been superseded by a law in 2014 which bars releases in cases of capital offence.
The state had consulted a panel that included men linked to the state’s ruling BJP, after the top court asked it to take a call on the plea of a single convict, Radheshaym Shah.
The panel had justified their decision calling the men “sanskari (cultured) Brahmins” who have already served 14 years in prison and displayed good behaviour.
A series of petitions were filed against the release of the convicts. The petitioners include Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, CPM Politburo member Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma and others.
“The convicts’ death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. How could they be released after serving 14 years in such a situation? Why are other prisoners not given the relief of release?” the top court had questioned during the hearing, commenting that the Gujarat government is on “thin ice” over the early release.
On behalf of the Gujarat government, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said since the men were convicted in 2008, they had to be considered under the 1992 policy.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months’ pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing during the communal riots that broke out after the fire in Sabarmati Express in which 59  kar sevaks were killed. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members slaughtered in the riots.