59.44pc voter turnout in JS poll, referendum: EC

A total of 59.44 percent of voters exercised their franchise in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum, the Election Commission (EC) confirmed on Friday. Polling for the election and referendum began simultaneously across the country at 7:30am on February 12 and continued uninterruptedly until 4:30pm, BSS reports.

According to the EC, a total of 12,77,11,899 voters were eligible to cast their ballots, including 6,28,85,525 women, 6,48,25,154 men, and 1,220 members of the hijra (transgender) community.

Vote counting began on Thursday immediately after polling and returning officers from across the country started sending results to the EC that night. 

The commission first announced partial results on Thursday evening, followed by the declaration of final unofficial results in the late hours. 

The much-awaited results were announced amid a festive atmosphere with the presence of local and foreign media, politicians, and observers.

Today, at around 11am, EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed concluded the announcement of results at the EC's collection and dissemination center at the Election Building in Agargaon here, covering all 297 constituencies of the referendum and the 13th JS election-2026.

According to the EC's declared unofficial results, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has won over two hundred seats in this election.

The EC cancelled the election in Sherpur-3 constituency following the death of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate. Results in Chattogram-2 and 4 constituencies were withheld due to ongoing court cases against the winning candidates, said EC.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A M M Nasir Uddin said on Thursday night that, by any standard in the country's electoral history, this election was a good one.