Dhaka, Bangladesh: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won a landslide in Bangladesh's parliamentary elections after a violence-filled campaign and a boycott of the main opposition party, giving her and the Awami League a fourth consecutive term in office.
While the Election Commission was slow to announce the election results, television stations with journalists across the country reported that the Awami League won 224 seats out of 299. Independent candidates got 62 seats, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest party in the country, got 62 seats. 62 seats. It won 11 seats and Kalyan Party got 1 seat.
Firefighters work to extinguish flames at a refugee camp in Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh, on Sunday.credit: AP
Elections were held for 299 seats out of 300 seats in Parliament. In one seat, elections were postponed as required by law after the death of an independent candidate. The final official announcement is expected from the Election Commission on Monday.
There were at least 18 arson attacks before the vote, but Election Day passed relatively calmly. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habib Awal said after the polls closed that the turnout rate was about 40 percent.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, refused to accept the election result, saying Bangladeshi voters rejected the one-sided government election.
Security incidents, including the killing of four people in an arson attack on a commuter train last week, have exacerbated pre-election tensions that Zia's party and allied groups have avoided. They accuse Hasina of turning Bangladesh into a one-party state and muzzling the opposition and civil society.
A security officer inspects the damage inside a passenger train that caught fire, killing four people in Dhaka, Bangladesh.credit: AP
The authorities blamed most of the violence on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and accused it of seeking to sabotage the elections. On Saturday, investigators arrested seven men belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its youth wing for their alleged involvement in the train attack. The party denied any role in the incident.
A supporter of the Awami League candidate was stabbed to death on Sunday in Munshiganj area near the capital, Dhaka, officials said.
