'51.7 million' people uncast vote'

Casting of vote in the 13th National Parliament elections was held from 7:30am to 4:30pm on Thursday. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies won 212 seats in the elections.

Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies won 77 seats. Awami League, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Workers Party and some other political parties were out of the election.

EC Public Relations Director Ruhul Amin Mallik on Friday said that 59.44 percent of the votes were cast in the 13th National Parliament elections and referendum.

Accordingly, 51.7 million voters did not go to the polling stations. The total number of voters in this election was 12,771,793. Of these, 64.825 million are male voters, 62.885 million are female voters, and 1,232 are transgender voters.

However, the Election Commission had announced on Thursday that 47.91 percent of voters exercised their right to vote. According to the rate given by the commission, an estimated 64 million voters voted. That is, more than 67.1 million voters did not vote. In percentage terms, this is more than 52 percent of the total voters.

The highest voter turnout in the history of Bangladesh's parliamentary elections was in the 2008 election. Then 87.13 percent voted. The lowest voter turnout was in the sixth parliamentary election held in February 1996, at 26.54 percent.

The voter turnout in the fifth parliamentary election in 1991 was 55.45 percent. The voter turnout in the seventh parliamentary election held in June 1996 and the eighth parliamentary election in 2001 was 74.96 and 75.59 percent, respectively.

Election analysts say that overall, the declared voter turnout of 59.44 percent this time is considered a medium-level participation in the context of the country's electoral history.