Last Updated on February 13, 2026 6:20 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
Zakir Hossain from Dhaka
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP is set to return to power after securing an absolute majority in the 13th national parliament elections, paving the way for its chairman Tarique Rahman to become the country’s next Prime Minister.
According to results announced by the Election Commission for 297 of the 299 seats, the BNP and its allies have won 212 seats. Of these, the BNP alone has secured 209, comfortably crossing the majority mark in the 299-member Parliament.
Tarique Rahman, who returned to Bangladesh after 17 years in exile, contested his first national election and won decisively from two constituencies, Dhaka-17 and Bogra-6. In Dhaka-17, he secured 72,699 votes, defeating Jamaat-e-Islami candidate SM Khaliduzzaman, who polled 68,300 votes. The victory margin stood at 4,399 votes. In Bogra-6, Tarique registered a much larger lead. After counting votes from 150 polling centres, he received 216,284 votes, while his nearest rival, Jamaat candidate Abidur Rahman Sohel, secured 97,626 votes. After casting his vote at the Gulshan Model High School and College centre in Dhaka, Tarique had expressed confidence in his party’s prospects, telling reporters that the people of Bangladesh had waited for this moment for over a decade.
Election Commission (EC) Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, in his closing remarks at the EC Secretariat in Dhaka, said that results for Chattogram-2 and Chattogram-4 constituencies had been temporarily withheld due to pending court cases and would be announced later. One other seat had earlier been kept in abeyance.
The Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance secured 77 seats, of which Jamaat alone won 68. Islami Andolan Bangladesh won one seat, while seven seats went to independent candidates. Among smaller parties, the newly formed National Citizen Party won six seats, marking its first entry into Parliament following the July mass uprising. Other parties winning single seats included the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, Bangladesh National Party-BJP, Ganosamhati Andolan and Ganodhikar Parishad.
According to the Election Commission, voting was held across 42,779 polling centres with a total of 247,482 booths. Fifty political parties contested the election, with 2,028 candidates in the fray. Voter turnout for the parliamentary election and the referendum combined stood at 60.26 percent. In the referendum held alongside the election, 48,074,429 votes were cast in favour of ‘Yes’, while 22,565,627 votes were cast for ‘No’.
The Awami League, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, did not participate in the election as the party’s political activities remain banned following the decision of the interim government. As a result, this was the first national election in decades without the Awami League in contention.
The BNP’s return to power also marks the end of nearly 35 years of female leadership in Bangladesh politics, following the tenures of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.
International leaders congratulated Tarique and the BNP on the victory. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his congratulations, saying the result reflected the people’s trust in Tarique’s leadership and reaffirming India’s commitment to a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted on X, congratulating the people of Bangladesh and expressing hope for continued close relations.
Congratulatory messages also came from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, the Chinese Embassy and the US Embassy in Dhaka, which described the BNP’s win as “historic”.
Following the confirmation of victory, Tarique Rahman instructed party workers not to hold victory processions or rallies. Instead, the BNP has called for special prayers across the country after Friday Jumu’ah prayers. As he left his Gulshan residence to attend prayers, Tarique told supporters, “Please pray for me.”
The formal process of forming the new government will begin after the Election Commission publishes the final gazette notification.