Voting ends in Bangladesh, counting on as Awami League leads

Voting started at 8 am in the morning and continued till 4 pm. Counting of votes is currently going on. 

Early trends showed Awami League-led alliance taking leads and marching ahead in the polls that might see the ruling party coming back to power for the third consecutive term (fourth term for Awami League since Bangladesh won independence in 1971).

People of the Muslim majority nation voted to decide the fate of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is the daughter of the country's founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as she is gearing up to return to power.

She has been ruling the country since 2009 and won the elections merely unopposed in 2014 when the opposition parties had boycotted the polls.

The key battle this time was between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, her alliances and the oppositon Jatiyo Oikyo Front which among other parties also combines the BNP (Bangladesh National Party of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who is now serving term in a prison in Dhaka on corruption charges).

The Bangladesh National Party contested with its chief Khaleda Zia currently in prison over corruption charges. She was jailed on Feb 8 this year.

Reports of poll-violence related deaths have emerged from different districts of the nation so far. Most of the deceased are reportedly Awami League activists.

At least 28 candidates from the main opposition alliance withdrew before polling closed, alleging vote rigging and intimidation, reported BBC.

Meanwhile, the country's Election Commission has announced that voting has been suspended in 22 of the polling centres in Bangladesh.

In the 11th Parliamentary election of the nation since it gained independence in 1971, the EC had organised 40,051 polling centres for the 299 parliamentary races across Bangladesh.

What did Awami League say about the polls:

The ruling Awami League said election took place in the nation largely without any conflict.

“In the 47 years of Bangladesh, I believe this election had the least conflict," Awami League Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak was quoted as saying by bdnews24.

“I believe that this election has been more peaceful, free and fair than ever before and has been conducted with the participation of all," he said.

BNP cries foul:

BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal has said that the election proved that fair election cannot be conducted by a partisan government.

“We now believe that there was no need to stage such a farce in the guise of an election,” he was quoted as saying.

“The president may just as well have published a ‘boat’ victory in the 299 constituencies in a gazette. We wouldn’t have been surprised by that,” he said.

Hasina and her 10 years:

Besides the economic progress of Bangladesh, Hasina also was applauded for acting tough after a deadly Islamic State attack in the capital Dhaka's diplomatic area in July 2016, claiming several lives.

She also earned accolades for sheltiering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled there from neighbouring Myanmar.