Bangladesh Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has been re-elected for the fifth term, with her party winning more than 50 per cent in an election marred with violence and boycott from the main opposition BNP.
Around 170 million Bangladeshis voted today to elect 299 lawmakers even as the Opposition boycotted the polls. Forty per cent of the eligible electorate exercised their franchise amid sporadic violence, officials said.
The run-up to the elections was marred with incidents of violence and arson where at least five schools and four coaches of a train were set ablaze on Friday. Four people died in the train fire.
Sheikh Hasina, whose government arrested thousands of rival politicians ahead of the polls, urged pro-democratic and law-abiding parties not to fuel ideas that "disrupt" the country's constitutional process, news agency PTI reported.
The Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia boycotted the polls. Ms Zia, 78, is under house arrest after being convicted in a corruption case.
The BNP is observing a 48-hour nationwide general strike that began at 6 am on Saturday.
Over 100 foreign observers, including three from India, are monitoring Bangladesh's 12th general election.
