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Awami League's vote share increasing Awami League
Nurunnaby Chowdhury/Wikipedia Bangladesh Awami League's office

Awami League's vote share increasing

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 03 Mar 2021, 09:13 pm

Dhaka, March 3: The votes of the ruling Awami League have been steadily increasing. The party received 5 percent more votes this time than in the previous municipal polls. On the contrary, the main rival BNP is losing votes. The party received 6.5 percent less votes than in the 2015 municipal elections. This information was obtained by reviewing the results of the recently held municipal elections.

Elections were held in 230 municipalities of the country in 5 stages including the last stage on Sunday (February 28). The Awami League candidates have been elected as mayors in 175 municipalities. BNP has won in 11 municipalities. Besides, Jatiya Party and Jasad have been elected as mayors in one municipality each. On the other hand, independent candidates have won in 32 municipalities. Almost all of them were rebel candidates of the ruling party.

In 230 municipalities held in five phases, out of 6 lakh 24 thousand 696 voters, 49 lakh 72 thousand 97 exercised their franchise. The turnout was 74.38 percent. Just as the Awami League won the mayoral election, they also got a large part of the casting vote. Awami League candidates got two-thirds of the casting votes.

The ruling Awami League-nominated mayoral candidates with 49,72,096 casting votes in the election got 29,79,725 votes for the boat symbol. The party received 59.92 percent of the vote in the casting vote. BNP got 10 lakh 46 thousand 36 votes.

Apart from this, the candidates of other parties including the independent candidates got nine lakh 46 thousand 106 votes (19 percent) out of the casting votes.

The Awami League also got more votes in the first municipal elections held on a party basis in 2015. However, the party's vote has increased by 5 percent this time than before. In 235 municipalities held at that time, Awami League got 53.54 percent votes. The BNP's vote share was 26.6 percent. The party received 6 percent less votes than last time.

Of the 235 municipalities held from December 30, 2015 to January 12, 2018, the Awami League won 162 mayoral posts and the BNP won 24. In addition, one independent candidate from the Jatiya Party and 27 independent mayors were elected. The Awami League has won more mayoral posts in three municipalities than last time. On the other hand, the number of BNP victories has come down to half. Last time he won in 24 matches but this time he has won in 11 matches.