01 January,2019 07:49 AM IST | Dhaka | Agencies
Sheikh Hasina is set to take office of the prime minister for the third consecutive time and the fourth time overall. Pic/AFP
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling alliance Monday swept to a landslide victory in the general elections, securing a third straight term even as the opposition grouping rejected the poll outcome as "farcical".
The Awami League-led grand alliance won 288 seats in the 300-member Parliament, Election Commission (EC) secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said, after counting of votes in the elections that was marred by deadly violence.
The alliance, which got nearly 82 per cent of the total votes polled, bettered its previous best performance of 2008 when it bagged 263 seats. The opposition Jatiya Oikya Front - National Unity Front (NUF) - secured seven seats with over 15 per cent of the votes, he said, adding that others won three seats.
Voting was postponed in one constituency and result not declared in another. While 71-year-old Hasina was seeking re-election for an overall fourth term as the prime minister, her 73-year-old arch-rival Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who is reportedly partially paralysed, faces an uncertain future in a Dhaka jail where she is lodged after her conviction in graft cases.
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Rejecting the results, the opposition NUF urged the EC to immediately scrap the "farcical election" and hold a fresh one under a non-partisan interim government. NUF chief and veteran lawyer Kamal Hossain called the polls a "farce", citing widespread polling frauds.
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