The main opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP),
which participated in the 2018 vote but kept away in 2014, boycotted the polls
after Hasina refused their demands to resign and allow a neutral authority to
run the general election.
The daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding father of
Bangladesh who was killed in an army coup in 1975 along with most members of
the family, Hasina, 76, first became prime minister in 1996. This will be her
fifth term overall.
In her
past 15 years in power she has been credited with turning around the economy
and the massive garments industry, while winning international praise for
sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.
According to Reuters, Bangladeshis largely stayed away from
Sunday's election, which was marred by violence. Turnout was about 40% when
polls closed, said chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, compared with
over 80% in the last election in 2018.
The
ruling Awami League party won 223 seats out of 298, according to unofficial
results released by the Election Commission on Monday.
Polls were held for 299 directly elected parliamentary seats
with close to 120 million voters eligible to choose from nearly 2,000
contestants. The result of one seat was withheld due to irregularities while
election to another seat will be held at a later date.
Hasina
herself bagged 249,962 votes from her constituency Gopalganj, about 165
kilometres (103 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, while her nearest rival
secured just 469 votes.
Among the ruling party winners were actor Ferdous Ahmed and
former Bangladesh cricket captains Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza.
Rights
groups warned of a virtual one-party rule by Hasina's Awami League in the South
Asian country of 170 million people while the United States and Western
nations, key customers of Bangladesh's garment industry, had called for a free
and fair election, the 12th since 1971.
"I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should
continue in this country," Hasina said on Sunday after casting her vote,
adding that her only accountability was to citizens of Bangladesh.
She has instructed party leaders and supporters not to bring
out any victory processions or indulge in celebrations, said Awami League's
general secretary Obaidul Quader.
Independent candidates, many of them Awami League party
members of various ranks, won 61 seats, meaning the parliament will largely be
without any credible opposition for the next five years.
The BNP, whose alliance won seven seats in the 2018
election, has accused the ruling party of propping up 'dummy' independent
candidates to try to make the election look credible, a claim the Awami League
has denied.
Critics accuse Hasina of authoritarianism, human rights
violations, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.
The economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine
war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn last
year to the International Monetary Fund for a $4.7 billion bailout. Inflation
was 9.5% in November.
"The government must curb the crazy inflation. And I
request them to lower tax and provide subsidies to poor people. We don't want
anything else," said Abdul Halim, a plastic toy seller in Dhaka, while
reading a newspaper pasted on a wall.
The BNP called a two-day strike nationwide through Sunday,
asking people to shun the election, and said the low turnout was a success for
their boycott call.
Hasina has accused the opposition of instigating
anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and killed
at least 14 people.
At least four people were killed on Friday in a passenger
train fire that the government called arson. Several polling booths, schools
and a Buddhist monastery were also set ablaze days before the poll.
Shakil Ahmed, an assistant professor at Jahangirnagar
University in Dhaka, said the latest polls would do little to ease the
political upheaval in Bangladesh and warned that violence could continue post
election.
"I think the immediate challenge for the prime minister
is to stabilise the consumer market for common people. This election is not the
answer to the debacle of politics in Bangladesh," he said.
