\n The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Tarique Rahman is heading for a thumping win in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, Bangladeshi TV stations projected Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Senior BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, in a party statement, claimed a \"sweeping victory\", without giving figures, calling for followers to give thanks in prayer on Friday rather than celebrate on the streets.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There will be no victory rally despite the BNP's sweeping victory,\" the statement said. \"We will hold special prayers at mosques after Jumma (Friday) prayers across the country.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n At 5:30 am (2330 GMT Thursday), broadcasters projected that the BNP had pushed well past the 150-seat threshold to secure a clear majority in parliament.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jamuna and Somoy television channels reported that the BNP had secured 197 seats.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Islamist-led coalition headed by Jamaat-e-Islami had won 63 seats, the stations projected, a huge leap from its past results but far short of the outright win it had campaigned for.\n<\/p>\n
\n The results are not official and counting continues for a total of the 299 constituencies of 300 in which voting took place.\n<\/p>\n
\n A further 50 seats in parliament reserved for women will be named from party lists.\n<\/p>\n
\n The BNP's Rahman, 60, now poised to become the next prime minister, was bullish in the run-up to the vote.\n<\/p>\n
\n He told AFP two days before polling he was \"confident\" that his party -- crushed during the 15 years of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina's autocratic rule -- would regain power in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Peaceful polls -\n<\/p>\n
\n BNP election committee spokesman Mahdi Amin told reporters the party was on track to win at least two-thirds of seats.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Buoyed by strong public support, the BNP will secure a two-thirds majority and form the government,\" Amin told reporters, adding that Rahman had won \"both seats\" he had run in.\n<\/p>\n
\n Party workers spent the whole night in front of the BNP offices.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We will join the nation-building effort led by Tarique Rahman,\" Md Fazlur Rahman, 45, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Over the last 17 years, we have suffered a lot, faced multiple politically motivated cases and lost a factory I owned.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Election Commission has not released final results, suggesting it will have those ready by late Friday morning.\n<\/p>\n
\n Heavy deployments of security forces are posted countrywide, and UN experts warned ahead of the voting of \"growing intolerance, threats and attacks\" and a \"tsunami of disinformation\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Political clashes killed five people and injured more than 600 during campaigning, police records show.\n<\/p>\n
\n But polling day was largely peaceful, according to the Election Commission, which reported only \"a few minor disruptions\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Ended the nightmare' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who will step down once the new government takes power, has urged all sides to stay calm.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We may have differences of opinion, but we must remain united in the greater national interest,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has led Bangladesh since Hasina's rule ended with her ouster in August 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\n His administration barred her Awami League party from contesting the polls.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yunus, after casting his vote, said that the country had \"ended the nightmare and begun a new dream\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Hasina, 78, sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity, issued a statement from hiding in India, where she called the vote an \"illegal and unconstitutional election\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Yunus has championed a sweeping democratic reform charter to overhaul what he called a \"completely broken\" system of government and to prevent a return to one-party rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Voters also took part in a referendum on the charter and whether to endorse its proposals for prime ministerial term limits, a new upper house of parliament, stronger presidential powers and greater judicial independence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Television projections suggested the electorate had backed the charter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Tarique Rahman is heading for a thumping win in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, Bangladeshi TV stations projected Friday. Senior BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, in a party statement, claimed a \"sweeping victory\", without giving figures, calling for followers to give thanks in prayer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-155302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n