Voter turnout was 41.8% at polls, says CEC

It is the third lowest turnout in Bangladesh’s election history after the February 1996 and 2014 polls

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal says the turnout for the 12th national parliamentary polls was 41.8 percent.

If anyone had suspicions about the count, they could ‘challenge’ it, he said in a meeting with the press at the Election Commission offices in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Monday.

Bangladesh held largely peaceful polls from 8 am to 4 pm on Sunday, but the election was marred by relatively low voter turnout, allegations of irregularities at several seats, and disruptions. Afterwards, counting began at the different centres.

The EC had promised to report the voter turnout on a ‘Smart Election Management’ app, but it did not happen.

EC Secretary Md Jahangir Alam said at separate briefings that the turnout was 18.5 percent at noon and 27.15 percent at 3 pm.

This led to questions about whether it would be the lowest turnout for nationwide polls since the election on Feb 15, 1996. However, CEC Awal said at a briefing in the afternoon that the turnout was around 40 percent, but might increase or decrease when the final count was available.

At 2:30 am, EC Secretary Jahangir left the Election Commission premises without announcing the full results of the polls. Instead, election officials hung up lists of results for 298 seats and were asked to check them for information.

On Monday, the commission presented information regarding the polls and provided their explanations to the media.

“As the results stand, the [turnout] is 41.8 percent,” he said.

Parliament has 300 seats, but the Naogan-2 poll was suspended before election day due to the death of a candidate. The returning officer also suspended the results of the Mymensingh-3 (Gouripur) seat due to the suspension of a polling centre. As a result, the EC has announced the outcomes of 298 races so far.

With 222 seats, the Awami League is set to form a government for a fourth consecutive term.

Independent candidates, almost all of whom are Awami League leaders, won the second highest number of seats with 62.

The Jatiya Party, the parliamentary opposition in the past two parliaments, only one 11 seats. They even lost over half of the 26 seats the Awami League had ceded to them in a seat-sharing deal.

Two members of the 14-Party Alliance - the Workers Party and JaSaD – won one seat each. The Kalyan Party, once in an alliance with the BNP, took one seat.