General elections were held in Bangladesh on 18 February 1979. The result was a victory for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the party of the incumbent military regime, which won 207 of the 300 directly elected seats, although it only won 41% of the vote.[1][2] Voter turnout was 51%.[3][4] The Awami League became the main opposition party after winning 39 seats.[5]
The elections were organized by the military regime in Bangladesh.[6] The elections were postponed twice, as they were initially supposed to be held in December 1978.[6] The political opposition in Bangladesh intended to boycott the elections, unless the military regime the military regime withdrew martial law, assured that there would be a parliamentary system, released political prisoners, and restored full press freedom.[6] Ziaur Rahman made some concessions to the opposition, but the fell short of their full demands.[6] Subsequently some opposition parties decided to take part in the elections.[7]
^Khan, Mohammad Mohabbat; Zafarullah, Habib Mohammad (October 1979). "The 1979 Parliamentary Elections in Bangladesh". Asian Survey. 19 (10): 1023–1036. doi:10.2307/2643851. JSTOR2643851.
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