Hasina set for landslide win after deadly Bangladesh election day

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared headed for a landslide win in a general election Sunday that was marred by clashes between rival supporters that killed 18 people and opposition claims of rigged voting. 

Early results showed Hasina's Awami League racing into a clear lead. Hasina's alliance easily crossed the 151 seats required to form a government, according to Channel 24, which is compiling results from around the country. The channel called the election's in Hasina's favour. 

As midnight approached, the Awami League and its allies had won 191 seats – some by tens of thousands of votes – while the opposition coalition had only five, the channel said.

Results will be officially announced Monday

The leader of Bangladesh's opposition alliance National Unity Front called Sunday's general election "farcical," saying any outcome would be rejected.

"We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible," Kamal Hossain, who heads the Front, told reporters. Hossain, an 82-year-old Oxford-educated lawyer, is a former member of Hasina's Awami League party.

Hossain said a few hours after voting ended that about 100 candidates from the alliance had withdrawn from their races during the day. He said the alliance would hold a meeting on Monday to decide its next course.

Under threat of violence

In the run-up to the election, activists from both the ruling party and the opposition complained of attacks on supporters and candidates.

Deadly violence and bitter rivalry that marred the election campaign continued as voting began, even as authorities imposed tight security with 600,000 troops, police and other security forces deployed across the country.

Hasina, 71, has been lauded for boosting economic growth in the poor South Asian nation during her decade in power and for welcoming Rohingya refugees fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

But critics accuse her of authoritarianism and crippling the opposition – including arch-rival and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia who is serving 17 years in prison on graft charges – to cling on to power.

The BNP-led opposition alliance Sunday accused Hasina's party of using stuffed ballot boxes and other illegal means to fix the result.

BNP spokesman Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal told reporters there were "irregularities" in 221 of the 300 seats contested.

"Voters are not allowed to enter booths. Especially women voters are being forced to vote for the boat," Alal said, referring to the Awami League symbol.

'We'll cast your vote' 

"Some stray incidents have happened. We have asked our officials to deal with them," KM Nurul Huda, Bangladesh's chief election commissioner, said as he cast his vote in Dhaka, the capital.

Bangladesh election commission spokesman SM Asaduzzaman said the body had "received a few allegations of irregularities" and was investigating. 

Authorities shut down high-speed internet services during polling "to prevent the spread of rumours" that could trigger unrest. One independent television news channel complained that its broadcasts were blocked.

Voting in the capital Dhaka was largely peaceful as convoys of soldiers and paramilitary forces were on the streets where most traffic was banned.

"I have never missed voting in my life. This is probably the last election for me and I want a suitable candidate for my country," 98-year-old Abdus Salam said at a Dhaka polling station.

However, voters in provincial areas reported intimidation. Atiar Rahman said he was beaten by ruling party activists in the central district of Narayanganj.

"They told me not to bother, 'We'll cast your vote on your behalf'," he said.

The opposition said the unrest was stirred up to deter voters, and presiding officers reported a low turnout across the country.

Sunday's deaths brought to 18 the official police toll for election violence since the ballot was announced on November 8.

Free and fair? 

"Hasina's use of the state machinery to subjugate the opposition virtually ensures her electoral victory," said Sasha Riser-Kositsky, a South Asia analyst for the New York-based Eurasia Group.

Hasina has expressed great confidence in the outcome, already inviting foreign journalists and election observers to her official residence on Monday, by which time the results are expected to be known.

While rights groups have sounded the alarms about the erosion of Bangladesh's democracy, Hasina has promoted a different narrative, highlighting an ambitious economic agenda that has propelled Bangladesh past larger neighbours Pakistan and India by some development measures.

Voters "will give us another opportunity to serve them so that we can maintain our upward trend of development, and take Bangladesh forward as a developing country," Hasina said after casting her ballot along with her daughter and sister in Dhaka.

Hasina and her main rival Zia have been in and out of power — and prison — for decades.

In Zia's absence, opposition parties formed a coalition led by Hossain. The 82-year-old Oxford-educated lawyer is a former member of Hasina's Awami League party.

Both sides were hoping to avoid a repeat of 2014, when Zia and the BNP boycotted elections over unfair practices and voter turnout in the South Asian nation of 160 million was only 22 percent. 

More than half of the 300 parliamentary seats were uncontested. The Awami League's landslide victory was met with violence that left at least 22 people dead. 

Human Rights Watch and other international groups said the crackdown created a climate of fear which could prevent opposition supporters from casting ballots.

The United States raised concerns about the credibility of the election while the United Nations called for greater efforts to make the vote fair.

Her government was criticised this year for its heavy handling of weeks of major student protests that brought Dhaka to a standstill.

Rights groups have since accused her administration of stifling freedom of speech by toughening a draconian anti-press law and the enforced disappearance of dissenters.