‘Historic 4th consecutive term’: PM Modi congratulates Sheikh Hasina on poll win
Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won almost 75% of the seats in Sunday's general election that was boycotted by the main opposition BNP and drew a low turnout.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on her fourth consecutive victory in the parliamentary election.
“Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh,” the prime minister posted on social platform X.
Hasina's Awami League won almost 75% of the seats in Sunday's general election that was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and drew a low turnout.
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Former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia's BNP had participated in the 2018 general elections, boycotted the polls after Sheikh Hasina refused its demands to resign and allow a neutral observer to oversee the election.
"Each political party has right to take decision, absence of one party in election does not mean democracy is absent," Hasina told reporters at her official residence in the capital Dhaka.
The 76-year-old Bangladeshi prime minister is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the Bangla-speaking nation that was formerly known as East Pakistan until its creation in 1971.
In 1975, Rahman was murdered along with most members of his family in an army coup. Hasina was not in the country on that ill-fated day of August 15 and hence survived.
Hasina first became the prime minister in 1996. This will be her fifth term overall.
In her past 15 years in power she has been credited with turning around the economy and the massive garments industry, while winning international praise for sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.
The ruling Awami League party won 222 seats out of 298, according to unofficial results released by the Election Commission, Reuters reported. Sheikh Hasina herself won 249,962 votes from her constituency Gopalganj, about 165 km (100 miles) south of Dhaka, while her nearest rival secured just 469 votes.