PM Hasina hails Jan 7 election as the fairest after 1975

Awami League chief Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called the 12th general election on January 7 the most free and fair polls in Bangladesh after Bangabandhu’s assassination in 1975.

“The father of the nation in his March 7 speech said no one would be able to keep [Bangladeshis] suppressed. The people have proved through the January 7 election,” Sheikh Hasina said while addressing party workers at her official residence, Ganabhaban, on Tuesday.

“People's participation in this election was significant. Even a 102-year-old person went to his polling station to exercise their franchise.”

“The [opposition] cannot claim this time that ballot boxes were stuffed on the night before polling because ballot papers were sent to the centres on the morning of election day,” the prime minister said.

She also asked Awami League leaders and activists not to nurse any grievances over the election as the opposition might take advantage of any unrest within the party.

Sheikh Hasina said her party had proven that a free and fair election could be held under a party government, adding that the only master the Awami League served was the people of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 seat in a landslide victory in the election, securing her eighth term as a lawmaker. 

The Election Commission on Monday announced the unofficial results of voting in 298 of the country's 300 constituencies. 

The ruling Awami League won 222 seats; the Jatiya Party 11 seats; the Workers' Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and Bangladesh Kalyan Party one seat each; and independent candidates won 61 seats.