Sheikh Hasina calls Bangladesh polls 'disgraceful chapter'

New Delhi : Bangladesh Awami League president Sheikh Hasina has formally challenged the legitimacy of the February 12 elections, characterising the event as a "disgraceful chapter" for the nation's democracy.

In a statement addressing the conduct of the polls, the former Prime Minister alleged widespread administrative manipulation and numerical fraud, asserting that the reported figures did not reflect the reality of public participation.

Sheikh Hasina highlighted a significant disconnect between the quiet polling stations and the final statistics provided by the Election Commission.

"Voters were absent at the polling stations; yet votes appeared on the counting tables!" the statement read.

The Awami League leader pointed to "highly inconsistent and unrealistic patterns" in the data, noting that while only 14.96 percent of votes were cast by 11:00 a.m., the figure surged to 32.88 percent by noon.

The statement argued that this sharp increase implied a rate of approximately 381,339 votes per minute across the country.

This would mean that a vote was cast every 5.16 seconds at every polling station, which the party described as an almost impossible rate, given that media reports estimated it took between 1.5 and 3 minutes for an individual to cast a ballot.The final reported turnout of 59.44 percent was further questioned as being "unrealistic" in comparison with specific voter demographics.