Dhaka: As roads remained unusually empty across the capital the morning after polling, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party emerged with a commanding two-thirds majority in the country’s landmark 2026 general election, while voters also ensured a sizeable opposition presence in parliament.The scale of the victory places the BNP in its strongest parliamentary position to date and sets the stage for Tarique Rahman to assume office as prime minister, marking a significant political shift after years of turbulence and strained bilateral ties with its largest neighbour under the interim administration.Seeking to open a new chapter in ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first world leader to speak with BNP chairman Tarique Rahman, who is set to become Bangladesh’s first male prime minister in three decades.On Friday morning, Modi congratulated Rahman on what he called a “decisive victory”. “This victory shows the trust of the people of Bangladesh in your leadership,” he wrote on social media platform X.“India will continue to stand in support of a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh. I look forward to working with you to strengthen our multifaceted relations and advance our common development goals,” he added.Several hours later, Modi spoke with Rahman directly. “I conveyed my best wishes and support in his endeavour to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Bangladesh. As two close neighbours with deep-rooted historical and cultural ties, I reaffirmed India’s continued commitment to the peace, progress, and prosperity of both our peoples,” he said.Last year, New Delhi had sent external affairs minister S Jaishankar to meet Rahman to convey condolences following the death of his mother and former prime minister Khaleda Zia. The outreach was widely seen as an effort to engage the BNP leader, then viewed as the frontrunner, after fraught ties during the interim government.Modi’s public message came early on Friday, before the Election Commission released official results. At that point, even unofficial tallies for all constituencies were still incomplete.According to a running compilation of constituency‑wise announcements carried by Bangladeshi media, results have so far been declared or effectively settled in in all of the 299 seats that voted on Thursday. Of these, BNP candidates have won 212, the 11‑party alliance has taken 77, and independents and smaller parties have managed just eight seats between them. If confirmed by gazette notification, this would mark the highest tally in the BNP’s history, surpassing the 193 seats won in 2001 under Khaleda Zia. It would also represent the best performance for Jamaat-e-Islami, whose previous highest was 18 seats in the 1991 election.Two former ruling parties will have no presence in the new parliament. The Jatiya Party failed to secure a single seat, while the ban on the Awami League’s political activities meant it did not appear on the ballot.Leaders from across South and Southeast Asia extended congratulations to BNP chairman Tarique Rahman following his party’s decisive victory. Both Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and prime minister Shahbaz Sharif were also among the first to extend congratulations on BNP’s landslide win,Several Indian political leaders extended their greetings as well.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated “Tarique-bhai” and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted the historical, linguistic and cultural bonds shared by two countries.Outside the BNP office in Dhaka, party supporters brandishing the symbol of dhaner sheesh, the sheaf of paddy, were jubilant as trends pointed to a clear victory on Thursday. One supporter said late that night that they had already crossed 218 seats. A large media contingent kept vigil outside the office, speaking to winning candidates who arrived to meet the leadership, which was understood to be discussing the shape of the next government.However, no major victory rallies were held either in Dhaka or elsewhere in Bangladesh.Senior BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said there would be “no victory rally”. “We will hold special prayers at mosques after Jumma prayers across the country and pray for the departed soul of Khaleda Zia,” he added.The figures on the television channels are based on returning officer declarations and near‑complete counts broadcast live and are being treated as provisional till the Election Commission (EC) issues its own aggregated results.As per media reports, the ‘yes’ vote for the referendum was 65.3%.The referendum was the second question put before voters alongside the parliamentary election. It sought public approval for the interim government’s proposed constitutional and electoral reforms, framed as part of the transition following the 2024 uprising. A majority endorsement strengthens the legal and political footing of the reform process and gives the incoming government a popular mandate to proceed with restructuring key institutions.The mood in Dhaka on Friday, which is the weekly holiday, was calm. Traffic flowed smoothly, with few vehicles on the roads. Owing to the election, Bangladeshis had enjoyed a four-day extended break, and many had travelled outside the capital. Taxis were back on the road, but the roads were largely the domain of rickshaws.Rahman remained largely inside his Gulshan office through the day, while journalists gathered outside the gates to monitor arrivals and departures.He was seen in public only when he left to offer Friday prayers at the Navy headquarters. As he departed, he stepped out of his vehicle briefly to greet supporters assembled outside his residence.After the prayers, he met senior BNP leaders to begin outlining the composition of the new government.Under Bangladeshi practice, newly elected lawmakers are first sworn in as members of parliament. As the previous parliament has been dissolved, procedural adjustments may be required for the oath-taking.Following the swearing-in of lawmakers, Rahman is expected to take a separate oath as prime minister, along with members of his cabinet. Invitations are likely to be extended to neighbouring countries for the ceremony.Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin said the referendum and 13th parliamentary election held on Thursday could be considered very good by any standard in the history of the country’s elections.“If you judge it by any standard in the history of this country and its electoral history, it can be considered a very good election,” he said at a post-election briefing at 10.00 p.m. on Thursday night at the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban, according to UNB News.BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman has been unofficially declared elected from both Dhaka-17 and Bogura-6 constituencies, BNP Election Steering Committee spokesperson Dr Mahdi Amin announced at a press briefing on Thursday night,Earlier, according to results announced by the office of District Returning Officer and reported by The Daily Star, Rahman secured 216,284 votes in Bogura-6, contesting with the sheaf of paddy symbol, while his closest contender, Abidur Rahman Sohel of Jamaat-e-Islami, received 97,626 votes.BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, contesting with the party’s electoral symbol Sheaf of Paddy, secured victory in Thakurgaon-1, UNB News reported.Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman bagged 82,645 votes in today’s election, said Jamaat’s election management committee member Zahidur Rahman, according to Somoy TV.In contrast, the party’s Secretary General, Mia Golam Parwar, has lost in Khulna. Golam Parwar, who contested with the scale symbol, secured 144,956 votes, losing with a narrow gap against the BNP candidate with just 2600 votesEarlier in Thursday evening, the Jamaat Ameer claimed preliminary results indicated that candidates of the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance were leading in many constituencies. He called for patience, saying it was too early to draw final conclusions.“Major irregularities were not reported, and voting ended without serious trouble. We are satisfied overall. In an election, one will win, and others must accept the verdict. The victory of one should be considered a collective victory,” Rahman said after the votes closed.On its official Facebook page, Jamaat claimed at around midnight that it had won more seats than BNP.However, as the BNP moved toward a majority, the Islamist party raised allegations of abnormal delays and result tampering, warning that it would launch a tough movement if the public mandate were snatched away.Speaking to reporters at the Election Commission building around 4.00 a.m. on Friday , Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair alleged that returning officers were intentionally delaying results to favour a particular party.“In the seats contested by our top leaders, results should have been declared by 8.00 p.m. or 9.00 p.m. according to the signed sheets given to polling agents,” Zubair said.He specifically pointed to Dhaka-17, claiming that signed result sheets were changed and overwritten to reduce their candidate’s tally by nearly 5,000 votes.The late-night accusations contrasted with the more measured tone of Jamaat Ameer earlier in the evening. He had noted that winning and losing are natural in a democracy but expressed concern over the disappearance of results from the EC’s official website.Zubair warned that the blood shed by 1,400 martyrs in the 2024 uprising must not be dishonoured by authoritarian result manipulation.“People of this country have shed blood against fascism. In this new Bangladesh, achieved in exchange for the blood of 1,400 martyrs, if public opinion is ignored again in an authoritarian manner, the people will not accept it,” he said.“We will not bow to any conspiracy. If necessary, we will launch a tough movement,” he said, adding that candidates in several constituencies were preparing for legal action.The party’s official statement on its official Facebook page on Friday expressed gratitude for voters in a “positive and peaceful atmosphere”.But, it expressed concern over the proessing of declaring results. “From candidates of the eleven-party alliance narrowly and suspiciously losing in various constituencies, to repeated inconsistencies and fabrications in unofficial result announcements, the Election Commission’s reluctance to publish voter turnout percentages, and indications that a section of the administration leaned towards a major party- all of this undoubtedly raises serious questions about the integrity of the results process,” it posted.Jaamat’s alliance partner, the youth party, Nationalist Citizen party (NCP) also told reporters at a press conference at around 2.30 am. that there was a plot of to rig the election results in “collusion with the media”. NCP spokesperson Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain specifically asserted that “defective votes” of ‘dhaner sheesh’ were being counted to declare BNP’s Mirza Abbas as the winner in Dhaka-8 constituency.Although the voting in the 13th national election and referendum ended at 4.30 pm on Thursday, 12 February, the Election Commission (EC) announced the overall voter turnout only the following day, puttint it at 59.44%.The voting started at 7.30 am and continued peacefully until 4.30 pm, with no major complaints or disruptions reported. So far, EC has claimed that not one person has died from any poll-related violenceAfter vote counting started, results from the polling centres under 299 constituencies had been coming in from across the country.While the polls had closed at 4.30 p.m, the election commission has not yet announced the overall turnout data. The official number till now is that the turnout was 47.91% at 2 pm.Gopalganj 3, the former parliamentary constituency of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and long seen as an Awami League stronghold, recorded a relatively low total turnout of about 41% on a simple average so far, with 38.40% in Tungipara and 43.6% in Kotalipara.In Tungipara, Hasina’s hometown, BNP candidate SM Jilani secured 60,991votes, defeating Hindu Mahajote leader Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, who polled 34,339. The seat has a roughly 40% Hindu population, making the result in Tungipara politically significant. Counting is still under way in Kotalipara, the other upazila in the constituency.The 2026 vote caps an 18-month political upheaval that began with a nationwide student-led uprising in July 2024, when protests over job quotas and authoritarian rule swelled into a mass movement that paralysed the country and ultimately forced Sheikh Hasina from office to exile in India.In the vacuum that followed, President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament and installed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus at the head of an interim government tasked with stabilising the country, overhauling election laws and preparing a new vote. That administration barred the Awami League from contesting this election, citing its role in rights abuses and disputed polls, while supervising a legal and administrative process that restored the long-revoked registration of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in 2025 and cleared the way for the Islamist party and its allies to return to the ballot. In parallel, the BNP’s acting chairperson Tarique Rahman ended 17 years of exile and flew back to Dhaka in December 2025 to take personal command of his party’s campaign, setting up today’s contest between a resurgent BNP and a newly re-legalised Jamaat-led alliance in a parliamentary poll from which the erstwhile ruling party is entirely absent.Two weeks after returning home, Rahman is now expected to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh.