The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability to the nation after months of tumult following the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising.

The party, led by Tarique Rahman, will return to power after 20 years. Rahman, the son of BNP founder and former president Ziaur Rahman, is widely expected to be sworn in as prime minister.

Here are some of the key promises made by the BNP in its election manifesto, which has the motto ‘Bangladesh before all’:

Reforms

To implement all points of the July Charter that seek to create new constitutional bodies, introduce a bicameral parliament, along with broader changes in line with political parties’ commitment.

Trade

To undertake initiatives to restart closed industries and diversify the export sector.

To undertake measures so that legally operating foreign businesses can repatriate their stipulated profits to their home countries within 30 days.

Employment

To create nearly 1 million new jobs in the information and communication technology sector.

To ensure fair, price-index-based wages in line with inflation and a review system to be launched every two years.

To develop technical and language skills among the youth and ensure merit-based government recruitment.

Economy

To introduce international payment systems, establish regional e-commerce hubs and boost ‘Make in Bangladesh’.

To launch a ‘Family Card’ for low-income families with monthly provisions to buy essential commodities.

Health

To increase public spending on health to 5% of GDP gradually.

To recruit 100,000 health workers across the country and expand preventive healthcare programmes.

Social

To launch a mid-day meal program for students and a new, skills and values-based education policy for schools.

To build better sports infrastructure and training facilities.

To set up training-based welfare programs for religious leaders of all faiths at places of worship.

DHAKA: Long overshadowed by his parents and heir to one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the spotlight.

At 60, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better”.

A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday.

Official results are yet to be declared, but the United States offered congratulations to Rahman on a “historic” win.

His rise marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.

Widely known as Tarique Zia, he carries a political name that has shaped every stage of his life.

He was 15 when his father, President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981.

Tarique’s mother, Khaleda Zia — a three-time prime minister and a towering figure in Bangladeshi politics for decades — died aged 80 in December, just days after his return home.

‘My country’

Speaking to AFP two days before the vote, Rahman vowed to build on their legacy.

“They are them, I am me,” he said from his office, beneath gold-framed portraits of his late parents. “I will try to do better than them.”

He described the “mixed feelings” that overwhelmed him when he arrived home in December — the joy of returning, swiftly eclipsed by grief at his mother’s death.

“This is my country, I was born here, I was raised here — so naturally, that was a very happy feeling,” he said.

Instead of celebrating, however, he had to bid farewell to his ailing mother, who had long been in intensive care.

“When you come home after so long, any son wants to hug his mother,” he said. “I didn’t have that chance.”

Within days of landing in Dhaka, he assumed leadership of the BNP and its election campaign.

The still grieving heir took to the stage, microphone in hand, rallying vast crowds.

‘Unnerves many’

His father, Ziaur Rahman, an army commander, gained influence months after a 1975 coup when founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Sheikh Hasina’s father — was murdered.

It entrenched a rivalry between the two families that would define the country’s politics for decades. Ziaur Rahman himself was killed in 1981.

Rahman grew up in his mother’s political orbit as she went on to become the country’s first female prime minister, alternating power with Hasina in a long and bitter duel.

“In her seats, I used to go and I used to campaign,” Rahman said. “So this is how slowly and gradually I started getting involved in politics.”

But his career has also been shadowed by allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

A 2006 US embassy cable said he “inspires few but unnerves many”.

Other cables labelled him a “symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics” and accused him of being “phenomenally corrupt”.

Arrested on corruption charges in 2007, Rahman says he was tortured in custody.

He fled to London the following year, where he faced multiple cases in absentia. He denied all charges and dismissed them as politically motivated.

But he also told AFP he offered an apology.

“If there are any mistakes which were unwanted, we are sorry for that,” he told AFP.

After Hasina’s fall, Rahman was acquitted of the most serious charge against him — a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina rally — which he had always denied.

Married to a cardiologist and father to a daughter, a lawyer, he led a quiet life in Britain.

That changed with his dramatic return and hero’s welcome in December, accompanied by his fluffy ginger cat, Jebu, images of which have gone viral on Bangladeshi social media.

He admits the task ahead is “immense”, rebuilding a country he says was “destroyed” by the former regime.

The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability after months of tumult following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising.

Latest counts in an election seen as the South Asian nation’s first truly competitive in years gave the BNP and its allies at least 212 of the 299 seats up for grabs, domestic TV channels said.

The opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies won 70 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, or House of the Nation.

The BNP, which returns to power after 20 years, thanked the people soon after winning a majority in the overnight vote count and called for special prayers on Friday for the nation and its people.

“Despite winning … by a large margin of votes, no celebratory procession or rally shall be organised,” the party said in a statement calling for prayers nationwide.

A clear outcome had been seen as key for stability in the Muslim-majority nation of 175 million after months of deadly anti-Hasina unrest disrupted everyday life and industries such as garments, in the export of which Bangladesh is No.2 globally.

BNP leader Tarique Rahman is widely expected to be sworn in as prime minister.

The son of the party’s founder, former president Ziaur Rahman, he returned in December to the capital, Dhaka, from 18 years abroad.

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 85, held office as interim head after Hasina fled to neighbouring India in August 2024.

Now in exile in New Delhi, Hasina long dominated Bangladesh politics along with Rahman’s mother, Khaleda Zia, while his father was a leading independence figure who ruled from 1977 to 1981 before he was assassinated.

Manual counting of paper ballots will run until at least noon on Friday, officials said, since starting on Thursday immediately after polls closed.

The BNP win with more than 200 seats is one of its biggest, surpassing its 2001 victory with 193, although Hasina’s Awami League, which ruled for 15 years and was barred from contesting this time, secured a bigger tally of 230 in 2008.

But bigger tallies for both parties in elections of other years were widely seen as one-sided, boycotted or contentious.

Jamaat promises positive opposition
Nightime throngs of supporters cheered and shouted slogans at the BNP headquarters in Dhaka as the scale of the party’s landslide became clear.

The head of its main rival, the Jamaat-e-Islami, conceded defeat and vowed that his party would not engage in the “politics of opposition” just for the sake of doing so.

“We will do positive politics,” Shafiqur Rahman told reporters.

However, the National Citizen Party (NCP), led by youth activists who played a key role in toppling Hasina and was a part of the Jamaat-led alliance, won just five of the 30 seats it contested.

Turnout appeared on track to exceed the 42% of the last election in 2024, with media saying more than 60% of registered voters were expected to have participated.

More than 2,000 candidates, many independents among them, were on the ballot, which featured a record number of at least 50 parties. Voting in one constituency was postponed after a candidate died.

Broadcaster Jamuna TV said more than 2 million voters chose “Yes”, while more than 850,000 said “No” in a referendum on constitutional reforms held alongside the election, but there was no official word on the outcome.

The changes include two-term limits for prime ministers and stronger judicial independence and women’s representation while providing for neutral interim governments during election periods, and setting up a second house of the 300-seat parliament.