Sheikh Hasina wins fifth term in Bangladesh amid turnout controversy

Questions raised over official turnout of 40 percent after opposition boycott call and reports of empty polling centres.

Sheikh Hasina has secured her fifth term as Bangladeshi prime minister in an election whose outcome was decided the moment its schedule was announced in early November when the main opposition boycotted the poll.

The surprise was who came second.

Instead of any political party, independent candidates secured a total of 63 seats, the second highest after Hasina’s Awami League (AL), which won 222, creating a problem of finding a parliamentary opposition.

The current opposition, the Jatiya Party, managed to secure just 11 of the 300 parliamentary seats, according to the Elections Commission.

Almost all the winning independent contenders were people who had been rejected by the AL but were asked by the party leadership to stand as “dummy candidates” to give the election a competitive veneer in front of the world.