2014 Bangladeshi general election
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 5 January 2014, in accordance with the constitutional requirement that elections must take place within the 90-day period before the expiration of the term of the Jatiya Sangshad on 24 January 2014.
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300 of the 350 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 39.58% (47.55pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by constituency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The elections were not free and fair. They were preceded by a government crackdown on the opposition, with Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Opposition leader Khaleda Zia was put under house arrest. There were widespread arrests of other opposition members, violence and strikes by the opposition, attacks on religious minorities, and extrajudicial killings by the government, with around 21 people killed on election day. Almost all major opposition parties boycotted the elections, resulting in 153 of the 300 directly elected seats being uncontested and the incumbent Awami League-led Grand Alliance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina winning a landslide majority. Hasina became the first prime minister in the history of Bangladesh to be re-elected to serve a second term.
The elections were criticized by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and the United Nations. 176 global leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joseph Stiglitz, issued a letter that claimed the election "lacked legitimacy".