Bangladesh revises referendum results, cuts over 1M votes

DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — Bangladesh’s election authorities have revised the official results of a nationwide referendum held earlier this month, reducing the total number of votes cast by more than 1 million and altering the breakdown of “Yes” and “No” ballots.

The Election Commission (EC), the constitutional body responsible for overseeing national polls, published a corrected gazette notification on Feb. 25, 13 days after the referendum results were first announced. The revised document was signed by EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed.

The referendum, held on Feb. 12, sought public approval to implement constitutional proposals contained in what authorities have described as the July National Charter — a reform package linked to broader political restructuring efforts. Initial results were announced unofficially on Feb. 13, alongside outcomes from national parliamentary elections conducted the same day.

According to the original gazette issued late on Feb. 13, a total of 77,695,023 votes had been cast. Of these, 7,422,637 ballots were rejected, leaving 70,272,386 valid votes. The notification recorded 48,200,660 “Yes” votes and 22,071,726 “No” votes.

However, discrepancies quickly emerged between figures announced earlier that afternoon by the EC secretary and those published in the official gazette. In his unofficial briefing, the secretary had stated that 48,074,429 “Yes” votes and 22,565,627 “No” votes were cast nationwide — numbers that did not fully align with the gazetted totals. 

Subsequent constituency-level data released by the commission revealed further inconsistencies, prompting media scrutiny and public questions about the counting process.

The revised gazette now states that 76,621,407 votes were cast in total — a reduction of 1,073,616 votes from the earlier figure. Rejected ballots have increased slightly to 7,435,196, leaving 69,186,211 valid votes.

Under the corrected count, “Yes” votes stand at 47,225,980, while “No” votes total 21,960,231 — both lower than in the previously published official notification.

The Election Commission has not publicly detailed the reasons for the revisions or explained how the discrepancies occurred between the unofficial announcement and the initial gazette publication.

Revisions of this scale — affecting more than a million ballots — are likely to intensify scrutiny of the referendum process, particularly given that it was conducted simultaneously with national parliamentary elections, a logistical undertaking that placed significant administrative pressure on election authorities.

The corrected gazette now stands as the legally binding record of the referendum outcome.