# 1991 Bangladeshi general election

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.
The elections were described to be free and fair by many international observers, and it played a major role in solidifying Bangladeshi democracy in aftermath of the anti-government protests in late 1980s. Voter turnout was 55.4%.
The election was disproportionate, with the BNP winning 52 more seats than the Awami League, 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 former Army Chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad from power in December. Ershad had assumed the presidency in 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". On 6 December 1990, the day of Ershad's resignation, parliament was dissolved 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, and an additional 30 seats reserved for women. The reserved seats were elected by the directly elected members. Each parliament sits for a five-year term.

## 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 Awami League, 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 Awami League.
Of the directly elected 300 seats, only four were won by female candidates. Following the elections, the BNP won 28 of the 30 reserved seats for women.
Seats :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | General | Reserved | Total | +/– |
| | Bangladesh Nationalist Party | 10,507,549 | 30.81 | 140 | 28 | 168 | New |
| | Awami League | 10,259,866 | 30.08 | 88 | 0 | 88 | New |
| | Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami | 4,136,661 | 12.13 | 18 | 2 | 20 | New |
| | Jatiya Party | 4,063,537 | 11.92 | 35 | 0 | 35 | –216 |
| | Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League | 616,014 | 1.81 | 5 | 0 | 5 | New |
| | Zaker Party | 417,737 | 1.22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Communist Party of Bangladesh | 407,515 | 1.19 | 5 | 0 | 5 | New |
| | Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab) | 269,451 | 0.79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Islami Oikya Jote | 269,434 | 0.79 | 1 | 0 | 1 | New |
| | National Awami Party (Muzaffar) | 259,978 | 0.76 | 1 | 0 | 1 | New |
| | Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) | 171,011 | 0.50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Ganatantri Party | 152,529 | 0.45 | 1 | 0 | 1 | New |
| | National Democratic Party | 121,918 | 0.36 | 1 | 0 | 1 | New |
| | Bangladesh Janata Dal | 120,729 | 0.35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | United Communist League of Bangladesh | 110,517 | 0.32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan | 93,049 | 0.27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | Bangladesh Freedom Party | 90,781 | 0.27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –2 |
| | Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Siraj) | 84,276 | 0.25 | 1 | 0 | 1 | –2 |
| | Bangladesh Muslim League (Ainuddin) | 66,565 | 0.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Workers Party of Bangladesh | 63,434 | 0.19 | 1 | 0 | 1 | New |
| | Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Khaliquzzaman) | 34,868 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Muslim League (Kader) | 32,693 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Janata Mukti Party | 30,962 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Ganotantrik Party | 24,761 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Inquilab Party | 24,310 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Oikkya Front | 21,624 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Janata Party–Ganatantrik Oikkya Jote | 20,568 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jomiyatay Wulamayya Islami Party | 15,073 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Mahbub) | 13,413 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Hindu League | 11,941 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal (Marxist-Leninist) | 11,275 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Oikkya Prakriyya | 11,074 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Muslim League (Matin) | 11,073 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | National Awami Party (Bhashani) | 9,129 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Pragotishil Jatiyatabadi Dal | 6,677 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Sramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal | 6,396 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Biplobi Front | 3,671 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Pragotishil Ganatantrik Sakt | 3,598 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Janata Party (Ashraf) | 3,187 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Jatiya Tanti Dal | 3,115 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Muslim League (Yusuf) | 2,757 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Jukta Front | 2,668 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Janata Party (Asad) | 1,570 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh National Congress | 1,421 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Chhashi Dal | 1,317 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Gano Azadi League (Samad) | 1,314 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Janasakti Party | 1,263 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Nezam-e-Islam Party | 1,236 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Islamic Samajtantrik Dal Bangladesh | 1,039 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Freedom League | 1,034 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Peoples Democratic Party | 879 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh People's League (Goariobi Newaz) | 742 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Mukti Dal | 723 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Jana Parishad | 686 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Muslim Peoples Party | 515 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Mukti Andolan | 503 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh National Hindu Party | 502 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal | 496 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Democratic League | 453 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Humanitarian Organization for the Prevention of Smoking and Drug Abuse | 453 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Tarun Sangha | 417 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Labour Party | 318 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Manobatabadi Dal | 294 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Ideal Party | 251 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | National Awami Party (Sadequr Rahman) | 248 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Khilafat Party | 241 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Islamic Biplobi Parishad | 214 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Islami Front | 202 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Bekar Samaj | 182 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Adarsha Krishak Dal | 154 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Islamic Revolutionary Party | 138 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Bekar Party | 39 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Jatiya Sramajibi Party | 28 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | National Awami Party (Nur Mohammad Kazi) | 27 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bangladesh Jatiya People's Party | 25 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Independents | 1,497,369 | 4.39 | 3 | 0 | 3 | –22 |
| Total | Total | 34,103,677 | 100.00 | 300 | 30 | 330 | +30 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 34,103,677 | 98.92 | | | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 374,026 | 1.08 | | | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 34,477,703 | 100.00 | | | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 62,181,743 | 55.45 | | | | |
| Source: Nohlen et al., Bangladesh Election Commission, Kumar Panday ||||||||

## 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.