Landslide election: AL soars in votes, BNP drowns in record statistics

Abrar Hussain of DOT
The Awami League has obtained a record percentage of votes in the recent general election that also served BNP its biggest ever defeat, according to official statistics published by the Election Commission.
The results cite that AL secured as much as 76.80% of votes in the December 30 election, compared to 72.14 percent in 2014. The party had secured 73.20% of votes when Bangladesh’s first parliamentary election was held in 1973.
Voting was held in 299 of the total 300 seats in parliament; results were suspended in one of the seats in Brahmanbaria due to reports of violence, reported BDNews.
The Election Commission has published the official gazette for 288 seats yesterday. According to Chief Election  Commission KM Nurul Huda, the latest polls saw almost 80% voter turnout. As many as 103.5 million people are listed as voters in the 288 seats.
In the 2008 polls, voter turnout was at record 87.13%.
The ruling Awami League and its allies, contesting for a third-consecutive term in power, had listed 271 candidates under its ‘Boat’ symbol. 265 ‘boat’ candidates won leading to Awami League bagging 257 seats, excluding seats won by ally party candidates.
Meanwhile, BNP had 281 candidates lined up for the polls. Of the total votes casted, reportedly only 13.51% went in favor of BNP’s ‘Paddy Sheaf’ symbol.
Although earlier predictions for BNP ranged between 30 to 40%, the December 30 polls brought an unprecedented defeat for the BNP.
The ‘plough’ of the Jatiya Party also suffered a similar record defeat when its 178 candidates bagged merely 5.37% of votes. But in spite of BNP securing more ballots, Jatiya Party secured more seats – 22