The Hindu : Front Page : Historic triumph for Hasina

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Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008
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Historic triumph for Hasina

Haroon Habib

Clean sweep for Awami-led alliance; BNP routed, Jamaat-e-Islami blotted out

DHAKA: In a landslide victory reminiscent of the historic 1970 election that led to the birth of Bangladesh , the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina has secured a remarkable majority in the Parliamentary elections held on Monday. This massive mandate will give the party the power to rewrite the Constitution and bring about the promised reforms.

With results for all the 299 seats out on Tuesday, the party that led the country’s independence war against Pakistan, won 230 seats independently. The voter turnout was 70 to 75 per cent, according to the Election Commission.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Begum Khaleda Zia came up with a paltry tally of 27. Its allies won three — Bangladesh Jatiya Party(1) and Jamaat-e-Islami (2).

The Hasina-led grand alliance partner Jatiya Party bagged an impressive 27 seats. Other AL allies secured five, taking the grand total for the alliance to 262.

Four independents won; LDP’s Oli Ahmed bagged one of the two he contested.

As early results indicated a massive Awami League victory, the prime minister-elect instructed her party activists to stay calm and not to organise rallies . Ms. Hasina won all the three seats she contested — Gopalganj-3, Bagerhat-2 and Rangpur-6.

Two-term former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia won her three seats — Feni-1, Bogra-6 and 7. Jatiya Party chief H.M. Ershad also clinched his three seats —Rangpur-3, Dhaka-17 and Kurigram-2.

Except Ms. Khaleda, an overwhelming majority of heavyweights lost their long-held seats, with such stalwarts as the former Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Jamaat’s Motiur Rahman Nizami, BNP’s Moudud Ahmed and Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar leading the list.

Hasanul Haq Inu of JSD, who contested as a grand alliance nominee with AL’s boat as his symbol, became MP for the first time, winning Kushtia-2. Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party who also contested on the same symbol made it from a Dhaka seat.

AL nominees won all three seats from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

LDP chief Oli Ahmed, a former BNP minister, lost his Satkania (Ctg 14) seat to a Jamaat candidate, but won the Chittagong 13 (Chandnaish) seat. The former BNP minister Abdul Moyeen Khan failed to win his Narshindi-2 seat. The former Home and Commerce Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, a retired air force general, lost his Patuakhali-1 seat.

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, a key component of the BNP-led bloc, saw its stock plummet in Monday’s polls. Playing its religion card more mutedly than before, the party polled only two seats — a good 15 fewer than it had in the last election where it netted 17 seats.

The reversal of its political fortunes was so stunning that its chief, the former Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mujahid, and firebrand Delwar Hossain Sayeedee lost by massive margins.

Related stories:

Hasina alliance set for landslide

Peaceful polling in Bangladesh

Bangladesh all set for polls

A vote most closely watched

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