INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image:There were violent scenes outside polling stationsPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured her third consecutive term with a landslide
victory, Bangladesh's Election Commission said on Monday.Her ruling party and its allies have won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats
contested, surpassing its previous election wins.The opposition has condemned the vote as "farcical," marred by violence, intimidation and
They won just seven seats and have demanded a new vote.Bangladesh's parliament has 350 seats in total, 50 of which are reserved for women
and allotted proportional to the overall vote."We urge the election commission to void this farcical result immediately," opposition leader
Kamal Hossain said."We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible."The Bangladesh Election
Commission told Reuters news agency that it had heard vote-rigging allegations from "across the country" and would investigate.At least 17
people have been killed in clashes between ruling party supporters and the opposition.What are the allegationsSheikh Hasina's Awami League
has run Bangladesh since 2009, but one of the leading opposition parties has accused it of using stuffed ballot boxes.A spokesman for the
Bangladesh National Party (BNP) alleged there were "irregularities" in 221 of the 300 seats being contested.Soon before polls opened, a
TheIndianSubcontinent correspondent saw filled ballot boxes at a polling centre in the port city of Chittagong
The presiding officer declined to comment.Only ruling party polling agents were present at that and several other polling centres in the
second-largest city of the country.Image copyrightReutersImage caption
Voters queue in the capital, Dhaka
Human Rights Watch South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said on Twitter that "with serious allegations of voter intimidation, restrictions
on opposition polling agents and several candidates seeking a re-poll, there are concerns about the credibility" of the election
At least 47 candidates from the main opposition alliance withdrew before polling closed, alleging vote rigging and intimidation.Activists,
observers and the opposition party had warned that the vote would not be fair, but the governing party accused the opposition of peddling
false claims.Ms Hasina told the TheIndianSubcontinent on Friday: "On the one hand, they are placing allegations
On the other hand, they are attacking our party workers, leaders
That is the tragedy in this country."'Too scared to speak out'Yogita Limaye, TheIndianSubcontinent News, DhakaAs we went from polling booth
to polling booth on Sunday, one pattern became clear
People who were supporters of Prime Minister Hasina's party were vocal, and happy to answer our questions on camera, about what issues
The others were mostly too scared to speak out.One man told us that several members of his extended family found that their votes had
already been cast when they went to the polling booth
He said he didn't think it was a fair election but didn't want to be identified.It wasn't hard to see why he felt intimidated
Outside every polling booth we went to, there were dozens of workers from the prime minister's party, listening intently when anyone was
No-one from the opposition parties was visible.While the election commission has said it will investigate claims of vote-rigging, the
organisation has itself been accused of bias by the opposition.So far, the prime minister has not responded to these latest allegations but
two days ago rejected claims the election was unfair.It was widely anticipated that her party would win the polls, but it will be a
controversial victory.Why was this election important Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation of more than 160 million people and faces
issues ranging from possibly devastating climate change, Islamist militancy, endemic poverty and corruption.The country has recently been in
the international spotlight as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled there from neighbouring Myanmar
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
PM Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power since 2009, casts her ballot on Sunday
The lead-up to the election saw violence between rival supporters and a crackdown on dissent by a government that critics say has
only grown more authoritarian during its 10 years in power.Who were the contendersSheikh Hasina's long-term rival, Khaleda Zia, was sent to
prison on corruption charges earlier this year and barred from competing in the vote, in a case which she claimed was politically
motivated.In Ms Zia's absence, Kamal Hossain, who was previously both an AL minister and Hasina ally, leads the main opposition grouping,
the Jatiya Oikya Front, which includes Ms Zia's Bangladesh National Party (BNP).However, the 81-year-old lawyer, who drew up the country's
constitution, did not stand in the election.The BNP boycotted the last vote in 2014, making Sunday's poll the first to involve all the major
