AL, allies take 262 seats

The Awami League-led grand alliance secured 262 seats in Monday's 9th Jatiya Sangsad election outplaying the BNP-led four-party combine that got only 32, according to unofficial results of 299 constituencies available yesterday.
The AL bagged 230 seats while its ally Jatiya Party (Ershad) got 27, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) three and Workers Party two seats.
The BNP won 29 seats while its key four-party ally Jamaat-e-Islami saw its once-proud seat tally plummet to a humiliating two from 17 in 2001 in what appears to be a wholesale rejection of the party by the voters.
Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), another component of the four-party alliance, bagged one seat, while Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) got one and the rest four went to independent candidates.
The results clearly indicate that the voters, especially the young and first-time voters, were hungry for a change that the BNP-led alliance was simply incapable of delivering.
The four-party offered few new ideas to the voters and appeared to have learnt nothing from its two years on the sidelines during which many of its senior leaders were incarcerated on corruption charges.
The defeat of the alliance can be seen as the majesty of the public verdict against the unprecedented corruption and tyranny that marked its five-year rule.