The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance on Friday won 212 seats of the 299 constituencies that went to polls in Bangladesh’s 13th national parliamentary election a day earlier, Prothom Alo quoted the Election Commission as saying.

The alliance led by the Islamist party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami emerged as the main Opposition with 77 seats, the newspaper reported.

Earlier in the day, the Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party claimed victory as trends indicated it would cross the majority mark.


This was the first national election since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government was ousted following widespread protests in 2024.

Voting took place in 299 constituencies. Polling in one constituency in the northern district of Sherpur was postponed because a candidate died during the campaign, Al Jazeera reported.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party also thanked its supporters for their role in the election but declined to hold victory rallies or processions, Reuters reported. Instead, the party called for special Friday prayers for the welfare of Bangladesh.

In this election, two coalitions led by former allies, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Islamist outfit Jamaat-e-Islami were in direct contest. Hasina’s Awami League could not participate in the election as its activities have been banned in the country.

Besides the parliamentary election, the country also held a referendum on the National Charter 2024, which is a document drafted by the interim government led by Mohammad Yunus, setting a framework for future governance.

Yunus, a Nobel laureate economist, took over as chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government three days after Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024. Hasina fled after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been in power for 16 years.

Yunus had pledged to step down once an elected government took office.

Early counts showed 2.15 lakh votes in favour of the reforms and around 80,203 against, The Daily Star reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rahman on leading his party to a “decisive victory in the Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh”. He was the first national leader to congratulate Rahman on the win.

“This victory shows the trust of the people of Bangladesh in your leadership,” Modi said in a social media post. “India will continue to stand in support of a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh.”


The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday thanked India and Modi for recognising the verdict of the country’s general elections and said that it hopes that the relations between the two countries will be strengthened under the new government, PTI reported.

Nazrul Islam Khan, the party’s chief coordinator the 2026 polls, said: “We believe that under the leadership of our leader…Tarique Rahman, the relation between these two countries and the people of these two countries will be strengthened.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also congratulated Bangladesh and Rahman.

“For this great victory, my congratulations…,” Banerjee said in a social media post. “Wish that our relations with Bangladesh be always cordial.”

Tarique Rahman wins both his seats

Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairman Tarique Rahman won in both Dhaka-17 and Bogura-6, according to unofficial results quoted by The Daily Star.

Rahman’s electoral victory comes just six weeks after the death of his mother, Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister.

Yunus, who heads the interim government, described the day as “the birthday of a new Bangladesh” and said the peaceful conduct of the polls demonstrated that the country’s commitment to democracy remained firm.

On the other hand, Hasina described the election as “farcical” and “unconstitutional” after the polling concluded and thanked Bangladeshi citizens for rejecting the polls. “Today’s so-called election by Yunus, who seized power illegally and unconstitutionally, was essentially a well-planned farce,” read the statement shared by the Awami League.

 A tense election

The last elections in the country were held in January 2024, when Hasina returned to office for a fourth consecutive term. The Awami League had won 222 out of the 300 elected seats in Parliament. The election had been boycotted by her main rivals, who accused her administration of rigging the electoral process.

In May, the interim government banned all activities of the Awami League, including its online platforms, under the country’s anti-terrorism act.

Hasina had in October described the decision as unjust and warned that it could undermine the legitimacy of the vote. She also warned that millions of her supporters would boycott the general election unless her party were allowed to participate.

In February 2025, a United Nations report said that the Hasina government was behind systematic repression and killings of the protesters in 2024, saying that the abuses could amount to “crimes against humanity”.

The report said that the Hasina government, the country’s security and intelligence services and “violent elements” associated with the Awami League had “systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations” during the agitation in 2024.

Of the 1,400 killed and thousands injured between July 1, 2024, and August 15, 2024, the vast majority were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces, the UN report said. Of these, 12% to 13% killed were children.

On November 17, Hasina was sentenced to death after the country’s International Crimes Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against humanity for the deadly crackdown on the protests.

The verdict was the first in a series of four cases related to crimes allegedly committed during her government’s response to the protests.

Hasina, however, described the tribunal as biased and politically motivated, and denied having ordered firing on protesters.

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