Hasina Calls Bangladesh Election ‘Industrial-Scale Fraud,’ Seeks Annulment

New Delhi, Feb 2026: Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has strongly criticised the national election held on Thursday, describing it as an “exercise in industrial-scale administrative manipulation and numerical fraud,” and has demanded that the results be annulled. In a detailed statement issued on Friday, Hasina alleged widespread irregularities, implausible voter turnout figures, and systematic efforts to manipulate the electoral process.

Citing data released periodically by the Bangladesh Election Commission on polling day, the Awami League chief said early voter turnout figures were extremely low, but later numbers showed “highly inconsistent and unrealistic patterns.” According to her calculations, by 11 a.m.—three and a half hours after polling began at 7:30 a.m.—only 14.96 per cent of registered voters had cast their ballots, amounting to 19.1 million votes. With a total electorate of over 127.7 million voters, Hasina argued that this translated to an average of nearly 91,000 votes per minute, a figure she said was already questionable given sparse crowds at polling stations.

Hasina noted that voter turnout traditionally rises fastest during the initial hours of polling. However, she claimed that Thursday’s election defied this pattern. “Despite being the most crucial phase of voting, turnout remained unusually low during the first three-and-a-half hours,” she said. What followed, according to her statement, was even more troubling. By noon, the reported turnout suddenly surged to 32.88 per cent—an increase of nearly 18 percentage points in just one hour.

“This implies that between 11 a.m. and 12 noon alone, approximately 22.88 million votes were cast,” Hasina stated. She calculated this to be an average of over 3.8 lakh votes per minute, a several-fold jump compared to earlier voting rates. Assuming all 32,789 polling centres were functional, this would mean each centre recorded one vote roughly every five seconds—something she termed “logistically implausible.”

The former prime minister further questioned the credibility of the final turnout figures by pointing to participation among special voter groups. Of the roughly 86,000 eligible voters in prisons, she said only about 5,000—or nearly 3 per cent—had voted. Similarly, among an estimated 15 million overseas voters, participation was reportedly around 500,000, or about 7 per cent. “In light of these facts, the claim of nearly 60 per cent overall turnout is not only unrealistic but borders on the absurd,” she asserted.

Beyond turnout discrepancies, Hasina alleged multiple instances of violence, seizure of weapons, vote-buying through the use of money, and arrests of opposition supporters ahead of polling day. She also accused authorities of allowing bogus voting and other irregular practices on election day itself.

The statement also raised concerns over the delayed announcement of referendum results linked to proposed reforms under the so-called “July Charter.” The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus had sought a referendum on these reforms. Hasina alleged that a delay of nearly five hours in publishing the referendum outcome, coupled with numerical inconsistencies in voter participation data, further strengthened public perception of electoral fraud.

Taking aim at the interim administration, Hasina demanded the resignation of Yunus, withdrawal of what she termed “false cases” against political leaders, the release of all political prisoners, and the removal of restrictions on Bangladesh Awami League activities. She rejected claims that her party had boycotted the polls, stating instead that it was “forcibly kept out of the election through unlawful bans.”

In contrast, Hasina accused the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of having voluntarily boycotted two previous elections and resorted to violence and arson, resulting in loss of life. “The Awami League chose participation over boycott, yet was denied a fair opportunity,” she said.

Concluding her statement, Hasina reiterated her call for annulment of the election, arguing that only a fresh, inclusive, and transparent electoral process could restore public trust and democratic legitimacy in Bangladesh.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)