Of the winners, 174 listed business as their profession. Some mentioned multiple occupations. In those cases, the first listed profession was considered the main one for calculation.
BNP alone secured 209 seats in Parliament. Of its winners, 145 reported business as their profession, which is 69 percent of the party’s elected candidates. Of the 68 Jamaat winners, 20 listed business as their profession, which is 29 per cent of the party’s elected candidates.
Six MP candidates of Rashtriya Nagrik Party were elected. Two of them stated business as their profession in the affidavits submitted by them. Five of the seven independent winners are businessmen. All of them were former BNP leaders. Two others are also businessmen.
In the first parliamentary elections held in 1973 after independence, 18 percent of the winners were businessmen. The rate increased with time. In 1991 it increased to 38 percent. At that time the Parliament still had a balance of politicians, lawyers and people from other professions. But in the last few years the number of businessmen in Parliament kept increasing.