Election authorities are counting the votes cast in Thursday’s general elections, the first held in Bangladesh since 2024, when the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a popular uprising.
Voter turnout was recorded at 47.9 percent across 36,000 polling stations as of closing time, said Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Bangladesh Election Commission.
Final voter turnout figures will be released after all election centres have submitted their papers.
The day of the election was largely peaceful, with reports of one death and two small Molotov cocktail attacks reported in Chauddagram, eastern Bangladesh and another at a polling station in Gopalganj Sadar.
More than 127.6 million people were eligible to vote in the election, as well as a referendum on constitutional reforms.
Amid heavy security with some one million security personnel deployed, voting began at 0130 GMT and closed nine hours later at 1030 GMT.
Long queues of people were seen outside polling stations.
Results are likely to trickle in by late Thursday local time as people elect 300 members of parliament across the nation.
A total of 51 political parties and 2,034 candidates are competing for parliamentary seats, including 275 independent contenders.
In addition to the 300 general seats where candidates are elected directly by the public, parliament includes 50 reserved seats for women, bringing the total size of the house to 350 members.
A Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance and a Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance were the two main contenders after the Awami League party of ousted Prime Minister Hasina was barred from the polls.
Leaders of all the major political parties, including Tarique Rahman of the BNP and Shafiqur Rahman of Jamaat-e-Islami, voted early on Thursday in the capital, Dhaka.
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus also cast his ballot and hailed the elections as most “peaceful and festive”, telling reporters, “Today is a day of joy for all of Bangladesh, a day of liberation. The end of our nightmare, the beginning of new dreams.”
Some 394 international observers and about 197 foreign journalists are covering the election, according to the Bangladesh Election Commission.
