Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has won a third term in a landslide election victory marred by violence and claims of ballot rigging.

Police said at least 17 people were killed during the vote and the opposition leader has demanded a new poll, describing the election as "farcical".

Results from Sunday's vote showed that an alliance led by Hasina's Awami League had won 287 of the 298 seats for which the outcome has been declared.

The landslide left the prime minister, who has been in power for a decade and is the longest-serving leader in the history of Bangladesh, with almost all the seats in parliament.

Image: The army were among 600,000 security officials deployed across the country

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which boycotted the last general election in 2014, won just six seats this time.


Bangladesh's election commission said it was investigating allegations of vote rigging from across the country.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned Ms Hasina to offer congratulations.

But Human Rights Watch expressed concerns over the election's credibility and Amnesty International called for an impartial investigation of the election violence.

It was the first fully-contested poll in the country for 10 years and saw the deployment of 600,000 security officials, including army and paramilitary forces, across the country.

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

There have also been allegations of arrests and the jailing of thousands of opponents of Sheikh Hasina.

Opposition alliance leader Kamal Hossain said: "We urge the election commission to void this farcical result immediately.

"We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible."

Image: The ballot was Bangladesh's first contested election in a decade

Mr Hossain claimed about 100 candidates from the opposition had withdrawn from their races during election day on Sunday.

There have also been complaints from opposition supporters of intimidation and threats, and being forced to vote in front of ruling party officials inside polling booths.

"Some stray incidents have happened. We have asked our officials to deal with them," said KM Nurul Huda, Bangladesh's chief election commissioner.

Bangladesh's elections have been viewed as a referendum on what has been criticised as Ms Hasina's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Her main rival is ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who a court deemed ineligible to run for office because she is in prison for corruption.

Both Ms Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's first president, and Ms Zia have been in and out of power - and prison - for decades.

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

Bangladesh, a country of 165 million people, was holding its 11th general election since its independence in 1971.

At Bangladesh's last elections in 2014, the BNP boycotted the vote claiming it was not free and fair.