1991 Bangladeshi general election

none February 2026 Bangladesh parliamentary 1988 Bangladeshi general election 1988 February 1996 Bangladeshi general election Feb 1996 List of members of the 4th Jatiya Sangsad List of members of the 5th Jatiya Sangsad 27 February 1991 300 of the 330 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 62,181,743 55.45% ( 2.97pp) 130x130px Begum Khaleda Zia with Prime Minister of India Chandra Shekhar Singh at Zia International Airport in Dhaka (cropped).jpg Khaleda Zia Bangladesh Nationalist Party 7 Party Boycotted 140 New 10,507,549 30.81% Defense.gov News Photo 001017-D-9880W-025 (cropped).jpg Sheikh Hasina Awami League Boycotted 88 New 10,259,866 30.08% Hussain Muhammad Ershad and Abel Matutes (cropped).jpg H.M. Ershad Jatiya Party (Ershad) 251 seats 35 216 4,063,537 11.92% Ghulam Azam Office 2009 (cropped).jpg Ghulam Azam Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Boycotted 18 New 4,136,661 12.13% Bangladesh parliamentary election 1991 map.svg Results by constituency Prime Minister Post vacant (acting president Shahabuddin Ahmed led a caretaker government) Prime Minister after election Khaleda Zia Bangladesh Nationalist Party General elections were held in Bangladesh on 27 February 1991. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emerged as the largest party in parliament, winning 140 of the 300 directly elected seats. The BNP formed a government with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, and on 20 March, Khaleda Zia was sworn in for her first term as prime minister.http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2023_91.htm BANGLADESH: parliamentary elections Jatiya Sangsad, 1991 Inter-Parliamentary Union 2 January 2019 The elections were described to be free and fair by many international observers, and it played a major role in solidifying Bangladeshi democracy in the aftermath of the anti-government protests in the late 1980s. Voter turnout was 55.4%.Dieter Nohlen Florian Grotz Christof Hartmann 2001 Elections in Asia: A data handbook I 537 0-19-924958-X Dieter NohlenBangladesh Election Commission http://www.ecs.gov.bd/files/9FZXuUYX8PQKl3146b6Bh8nNwuFxam24YHB2vaGi.pdf 1991 Report on election activities: Jatiya Sangsad Elections, 1991 (in Bengali) Government Printing Press 29 May 2022 The election was disproportionate, with the BNP winning 52 more seats than the Awami League (AL), despite their popular vote total differing by less than one percentage point. Background In 1990, a mass uprising led by future prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina deposed the president, former army chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad, from power in December.WORLD: Ershad Resigns in Bangladesh https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-06-mn-8405-story.html Los Angeles Times 6 December 1990 Ershad had assumed the presidency in 1983Bangladesh Leader in Military Regime Assumes Presidency https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/12/world/bangladesh-leader-in-military-regime-assumes-presidency.html The New York Times 12 December 1983 following a coup d'état in 1982. The previous general elections had been held in 1988 and saw Ershad's Jatiya Party win 251 of the 300 seats. However, the elections had been boycotted by all major opposition parties and were described by one Western diplomat as "a mockery of an election".Ruling Party Is Declared the Winner in Bangladesh https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/06/world/ruling-party-is-declared-the-winner-in-bangladesh.html The New York Times 6 March 1988 On 6 December 1990, the day of Ershad's resignation, parliament was dissolvedhttp://www.parliament.gov.bd/index.php/en/about-parliament/tenure-of-parliament Tenure of All Parliaments 30 December 2012 Parliament of Bangladesh en 30 December 2018 and new elections were scheduled for 2 March 1991, but subsequently advanced to 27 February, with all major political parties participating. Electoral system The 330 members of the Jatiya Sangsad consisted of 300 directly elected seats using first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies,Electoral system Inter-Parliamentary Union and an additional 30 seats reserved for women. The reserved seats were elected by the directly elected members.Nizam Ahmed and Sadik Hasan Alangkar or Ahangkar? Reserved-Seat Women Members in the Bangladesh Parliament https://web.archive.org/web/20201027105330/https://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9783319574745-c2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1615881-p180810316 2020-10-27 Each parliament sits for a five-year term. Campaign During the announcement of the party manifesto ahead of the general election, Sheikh Hasina expressed optimism about the AL securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The party pledged to restore the 1972 Constitution and re-establish the parliamentary system if elected. On the campaign trail in Bogra, Hasina emphasized the party's focus on realistic commitments, promising solutions to regional issues such as the construction of the Jamuna Bridge. Her confidence in electoral victory was evident in various speeches, including a rally in Khulna where she was quoted by The Daily Ittefaq saying that both at home and abroad, people believed the AL would return to power. In contrast, BNP leader Khaleda Zia combined promises of development with warnings against voting for the AL. At a rally on Dhaka's Manik Mia Avenue, she stated, "We hold the flag of independence, others hold the chains of servitude," urging voters to choose the BNP's symbol, the sheaf of paddy, to protect national sovereignty.2023-11-16 bn:নির্বাচন : ১৯৯১ থেকে ২০০৮ পর্যন্ত খালেদা জিয়া ও শেখ হাসিনার মধ্যে যেভাবে ক্ষমতার পালাবদল হয়েছিল https://www.bbc.com/bengali/articles/clkjw8k1773o 2025-07-02 BBC News বাংলা bn Throughout the campaign, religious emblems, symbols, and rhetoric were deliberately utilized by parties like the AL, BNP, and Jamaat to gain popular support. The BNP openly declared that the passage Bismi Allāh-al-Rahmān-al-Rahīm would be removed from the Constitution if AL secured victory. Hasina denied these allegations, stating that she did not have any opposing views on it.Md. Mahdi Hasan Bhirawa Anoraga 5 September 2025 The Shifting Stands of Secularims: Bangladesh's Response to Religious Conservatism Australian Journal of Islamic Studies 10 2 90–122 10.55831/ajis.v10i2.733 free Religiously motivated slogans were also well observed. The BNP campaign used the slogan Lā ʿIlāha illa Allāh, dhaner shishe Bismi Allāh ("vote for the symbol of the paddy sheaf, assuming that God is merciful"). Countering it, the AL campaign used the slogan Lā ʾIlāha illa Allāh, nawkar mālik tui Allāh ("there is no God but Allah; the boat belongs to Allah"). On the other hand, the Jamaat campaign used the slogan Vote dile pallay, khushi hobe Allāh ("if you vote for scale, it would bring Allāh's pleasure"). Results The elections saw the BNP win 140 of the 300 directly elected seats, 11 short of a parliamentary majority. The BNP's primary rivals, the AL, led by Sheikh Hasina, won only 88 seats. However, there was little difference between the two main parties in terms of the popular vote share, with BNP only receiving around 250,000 votes more than the AL. Of the directly elected 300 seats, only four were won by female candidates.Kumar Panday Pranab 1 September 2008 Representation without Participation: Quotas for Women in Bangladesh International Political Science Review 29 4 489–512 10.1177/0192512108095724 220874021 Following the elections, the BNP won 28 of the 30 reserved seats for women. General Women Total +/– Bangladesh Nationalist Party 10507549 140 28 168 New Awami League 10259866 88 0 88 New Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami 4136661 18 2 20 New Jatiya Party 4063537 35 0 35 –216 Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League 616014 5 0 5 New Zaker Party 417737 0 0 0 New Communist Party of Bangladesh 407515 5 0 5 New Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab) 269451 0 0 0 New Islami Oikya Jote 269434 1 0 1 New National Awami Party (Muzaffar) 259978 1 0 1 New Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) 171011 0 0 0 New Ganatantri Party 152592 1 0 1 New National Democratic Party 121918 1 0 1 New Bangladesh Janata Dal 120729 0 0 0 New United Communist League of Bangladesh 110517 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan 93049 0 0 0 0 Freedom Party 90781 0 0 0 –2 Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Siraj) 84276 1 0 1 –2 Bangladesh Muslim League (Ainuddin) 66575 0 0 0 New Workers Party of Bangladesh 63434 1 0 1 New Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Khaliquzzaman) 34868 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Muslim League (Kader) 32693 0 0 0 New Janata Mukti Party 30962 0 0 0 New Jatiya Ganotantrik Party 24761 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Islami Front 24310 0 0 0 New Jatiya Oikkya Front 21624 0 0 0 New Jatiya Janata Party–Ganatantrik Oikkya Jote 20568 0 0 0 New Jamaaiatay Olamaya Islam Front 15073 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Mahbub) 13413 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Hindu League 11941 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal (Marxist-Leninist) 11275 0 0 0 New Oikkya Prakriyya 11074 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Muslim League (Matin) 11073 0 0 0 New National Awami Party (Bhashani) 9129 0 0 0 New Pragotishil Jatiyatabadi Dal 6677 0 0 0 New Sramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal 6396 0 0 0 New Jatiya Biplobi Front 3671 0 0 0 New Pragotishil Ganatantrik Sakt 3598 0 0 0 New Jatiya Janata Party (Ashraf) 3187 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Jatiya Tanti Dal 3115 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Muslim League (Yusuf) 2757 0 0 0 New Jatiya Jukta Front 2668 0 0 0 New Jatiya Janata Party (Asad) 1570 0 0 0 New Bangladesh National Congress 1421 0 0 0 New Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Chhashi Dal 1317 0 0 0 New Gano Azadi League (Samad) 1314 0 0 0 New Janasakti Party 1263 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Nezam-e-Islam Party 1236 0 0 0 New Islamic Samajtantrik Dal Bangladesh 1039 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Freedom League 1034 0 0 0 New Peoples Democratic Party 879 0 0 0 New Bangladesh People's League (Goariobi Newaz) 742 0 0 0 New Jatiya Mukti Dal 723 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Jana Parishad 686 0 0 0 New Muslim Peoples Party 515 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Mukti Andolan 503 0 0 0 New Bangladesh National Hindu Party 502 0 0 0 New Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal 496 0 0 0 New Democratic League 453 0 0 0 New Humanitarian Organization for the Prevention of Smoking and Drug Abuse 453 0 0 0 New Jatiya Tarun Sangha 417 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Labour Party 318 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Manobatabadi Dal 294 0 0 0 New Ideal Party 251 0 0 0 New National Awami Party (Sadequr Rahman) 248 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Khilafat Party 241 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Inquilab Party 214 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Islamic Biplobi Parishad 202 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Bekar Samaj 182 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Adarsha Krishak Dal 154 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Islamic Republican Party 138 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Bekar Party 39 0 0 0 New Jatiya Sramajibi Party 28 0 0 0 New National Awami Party (Nur Mohammad Kazi) 27 0 0 0 New Bangladesh Jatiya People's Party 25 0 0 0 New Independents 1497396 3 0 3 –22 +30 374026 62181743 Nohlen et al., Bangladesh Election Commission, Kumar Panday File:Jatiya Sangsad 1991.svg Aftermath In September 1991 a constitutional referendum was held, which sought the transfer of executive powers from the President to the Prime Minister, making the presidency largely a ceremonial role. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of the constitutional amendments, and the country returned to being a parliamentary democracy in line with its founding constitution. Following the announcement of the general election results, AL President Sheikh Hasina alleged at a press conference that undemocratic forces had subtly manipulated the outcome. A letter by AL leader Kamal Hossain, written to the party's executive council, stirred considerable debate. In it, he attributed the party's defeat to overconfidence, arrogance, and lack of grassroots engagement. Hossain noted that many AL leaders and activists had assumed victory well in advance, leading to complacency. He also criticized the party's weak counter-campaign against right-wing and anti-independence forces who had portrayed the AL as pro-India and anti-religion. Meanwhile, discussions continued between the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami regarding government formation. Eventually, Jamaat-e-Islami formally communicated its support for the BNP to the acting president. On 20 March 1991, Khaleda Zia was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bangladesh. References General Category:General elections in Bangladesh Bangladesh