'Deception & farce': Hasina rejects B'desh poll results, calls it 'disgraceful chapter'

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina precocious Friday reacted sharply to the precocious held wide elections successful the South Asian nation, dismissing the February 12 polls arsenic a “pre-planned predetermination of deception and farce” and calling it a “disgraceful chapter” successful the country’s history.

Her remarks travel arsenic her party, the Awami League, remained wholly absent from the electoral contest, portion Hasina continues to unrecorded successful exile successful New Delhi pursuing her ouster successful August 2024 implicit information concerns.In a statement, Hasina said, “On 12 February, the federation witnessed a pre-planned predetermination of deception and farce, 1 that volition beryllium recorded arsenic a disgraceful section successful Bangladesh’s antiauthoritarian history.”She further questioned the legitimacy of the polls, saying they did not bespeak the “public will” and alleging that the workout amounted to an industrial-scale administrative effort to manipulate numbers.Providing elaborate figures to enactment her claim, Hasina said, “The full fig of registered voters successful this predetermination was 127,711,793. Voting began astatine 7:30 a.m. and continued until 4:30 p.m. Serious irregularities were observed, some successful the behaviour of voting and successful the turnout percentages released successful stages by the Election Commission, galore of which appeared inconsistent and unrealistic.

According to the Commission’s archetypal briefing, by 11:00 a.m.

—the archetypal 3 hours and 30 minutes—14.96% of votes had been cast, equivalent to 19,105,684 ballots. That would mean an mean of 90,979 votes per minute…”Meanwhile, Hasina’s arch-rival and erstwhile PM, arsenic good arsenic BNP supremo Khaleda Zia, had died weeks earlier the elections. The BNP, present led by her lad Tarique Rahman, secured a commanding majority, winning two-thirds of the full seats.The BNP’s instrumentality to powerfulness has renewed calls from Dhaka for Hasina’s extradition from India, presenting a analyzable diplomatic situation for New Delhi.Following the BNP’s sweeping triumph successful the country’s archetypal wide predetermination since the 2024 uprising, elder enactment person Salahuddin Ahmed said the incoming authorities would instrumentality steps to unafraid Hasina’s instrumentality to Bangladesh to look trial.