The electoral commission announced on Friday the large victory of Tarique Rahman's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won an absolute majority of seats in the single house of Parliament. He is well ahead of his main rival, the Jamaat-e-Islami Islamist coalition.

Published on: 02/12/2026 - 06:03 Modified on: 02/13/2026 - 14:56

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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won an absolute majority of seats in the first legislative elections organized since the insurrection which caused the fall of Sheikh Hasina's iron regime in 2024, the electoral commission announced on Friday February 13.

The party led by Tarique Rahman won 212 of the 300 seats to be filled, against 77 for the coalition led by the Islamists of Jamaat-e-Islami, declared to the press the first secretary of the commission, Akhtar Ahmed.

“The victory was expected,” Salahuddin Ahmed, a senior BNP official, told AFP. "It is not surprising that the people of Bangladesh have placed their trust in a party which is pro-Bangladesh...and capable of realizing the dreams expressed by our youth during the riots," he added.

Congratulations from the United States and India

“We are not satisfied with the process surrounding the election results,” reacted the Jamaat in a statement, denouncing “repeated inconsistencies or montages in the announcement of provisional results” which “pose serious questions about the integrity” of the process.

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In a social media post from its embassy in Dhaka, the United States congratulated the BNP and Tarique Rahman on their "historic victory" and looked forward to working with them "to achieve their goals of prosperity and security."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated the BNP on its “decisive victory”. “This victory demonstrates the confidence that the Bangladeshi people have in your ability to lead,” he said in a statement posted on social media, addressing Tarique Rahman. “India will continue to support a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh,” he added.

Tarique Rahman, heir to a long political dynasty

“We are going to join the effort to rebuild the country that Tarique Rahman will undertake,” BNP supporter Md Fazlur Rahman, 45, told AFP. “Over the past seventeen years we have suffered a lot.”

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Even before the polling stations closed on Thursday, Tarique Rahman expressed his confidence to the press. “I will win the election (...) we will have a sufficient majority to calmly rule the country.” Aged 60, the likely future Prime Minister is the heir to a long political dynasty. Returning in December from seventeen years of exile in the United Kingdom, he took over as head of the BNP from his mother Khaleda Zia, three times Prime Minister, after her death a few days earlier.

His rival, the leader of Jamaat, Shafiqur Rahman, 67, who experienced the jails of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, aims to become the first Islamist Prime Minister in the history of Bangladesh, a 90% Muslim country.

In a statement Thursday evening, the head of the provisional government and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus urged the parties to respect democratic practices, to show "tolerance and respect" "We must remain united in the national interest", insisted Muhammad Yunus, 85, who announced that he would withdraw as soon as the official results were announced.

A vote without major incident

After an often tense, sometimes violent campaign, Thursday's vote, secured by more than 300,000 police and soldiers, took place without major incident.

Many voters were delighted to be able to vote, with a fervor unprecedented since the election of Sheikh Hasina in 2009. The following ballots had all been shunned by the opposition or distorted by massive fraud.

Bangladeshi voters also voted Thursday in a referendum on a series of institutional reforms intended to avoid the return of an authoritarian regime. According to estimates published by local television, the "yes" were expected to win by a wide margin.

From her Indian exile, Sheikh Hasina, sentenced to death for the repression of the 2024 revolt, denounced in a statement published by her party an “illegal and unconstitutional” vote.

With AFP

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