The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has won the country's crucial parliamentary election with a thumping majority, with leader Tarique Rahman poised to become the prime minister, according to local news reports. Bangladesh Election Commission results published by Dhaka Tribune and Prothomalo English news website on Saturday showed Rahman's BNP overwhelmingly winning the polls. But there has been no official announcement.
It was almost midnight, but tens of thousands of people were still gathering for a campaign rally in Gazipur, a garment manufacturing hub north of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. Many had been waiting for hours to hear Tarique Rahman, who succeeded as the chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) following the death of his mother and Bangladesh's first female prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in December.