Abstract
The election not only delivered a landslide victory to the incumbent Bangladesh Awami League with 96% of the seats but also produced unbelievable results at the constituency level. In 51 out of 300 seats, more than 80% of the popular votes were secured by the candidates of the ruling party alliance. This chapter analyzes the results, compares them with two previously inclusive elections in 2001 and 2008, shows the trend and pattern of voting, and explains the incredulity of the loss of the opposition, particularly the BNP. The chapter also shows the discrepancies between the constituencies which used electronic voting machines (EVM) and elsewhere.
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Notes
- 1.
The share of popular votes used for analysis in this chapter is based on 298 seats for which election was held on December 30, 2018. Polling in two seats were postponed and held later.
- 2.
Only opinion poll published in the newspapers prior to the election was conducted by an organization called the Research and Development Center (RDC). The organization had no prior record and was not available to be contacted after the results were published in a press conference at Dhaka on December 26, three days ahead of the election. The survey was funded by the Independent Television (a private satellite television channel) and The Independent (English newspaper), both owned by businessman and AL candidate Salman F Rahman, as well as the privatization affairs advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Interestingly, the survey predicted 60% support for the Grand Alliance and 22% for the JOF.
- 3.
However, in some cases where AL won three elections, JP secured the parliamentary seats of Sherpur1 and Hobiganj1 in 1991, CPB won Thakurgaon2 in 1996, JP won Thakurgaon3, and an independent candidate won Shariatpur1 in 2008 in the fourth election. On the other hand, in the parliamentary seats where BNP secured its victory for three election years, in 1991 BJI won the seats Bogra2, Chittagong14, and Cox’s Bazar2, in 1996 an independent candidate won Meherpur2, and, in 2008, another independent candidate won Noakhali2 in the fourth election. Nevertheless, ten seats were secured by JP in three elections, in all cases AL got elected in the fourth election year.
Bibliography
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Riaz, A. (2019). Election Results: A Victory Too Big to Believe?. In: Voting in a Hybrid Regime. Politics of South Asia. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7956-7_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7956-7_8
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