Bangladesh election officials are counting votes after a disputed, violent election boycotted by the opposition ensured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was guaranteed a fourth consecutive term in office.
Bangladeshis largely stayed away from Sunday's vote as early signs pointed to low turnout, despite widespread reports of carrot-and-stick incentives aimed at bolstering the election's legitimacy.
“The counting of votes has begun,” said Election Commission spokesman Shariful Alam.
Later on Sunday, local media reported that Hasina's Awami League won 216 of 299 seats, independent candidates won 52 and the Jatiya Party won 11 seats. The results for the remaining constituencies were still available.
Official results from the electoral commission are expected on Monday morning.
Voter turnout was 27.15 percent at 3 p.m. (0900 GMT), an hour before polls closed, the election commission said, compared with an overall turnout of more than 80 percent in the last election in 2018.
Voting was canceled in three centers due to irregularities, said Jahangir Alam, secretary of the commission.
Independent election observer and civil society activist Badiul Alam Majumder told Al Jazeera he did not think the vote was a “real election” at all.
“Voter turnout is very low — probably the lowest I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said, adding that his organization did not officially monitor voting this year.
Hasina, 76, urged citizens to cast their votes and show their faith in the democratic process, branding the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) a “terrorist organization”.
Accompanied by her daughter and other family members, Hasina voted at City College in the capital Dhaka a few minutes after the election began.
“Bangladesh is a sovereign country and the people are my power,” she said after the vote, adding that she hoped her party would win the popular mandate, giving her a fifth term since 1996.
“I am trying my best to ensure that democracy continues in this country.”
The BNP, whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, called for a two-day nationwide strike until Sunday and urged people not to take part in what it called a “sham election.”
BNP leader Tarique Rahman said from Britain, where he lives in exile, that he was worried about ballot stuffing.
“I fear that the electoral commission could increase voter turnout through fake votes,” he told AFP.
Hasina last year rejected BNP calls to step down and allow a neutral authority to conduct the elections, accusing the opposition of fomenting anti-government protests that have rocked the capital since late October and killed at least 14 people.
Human rights groups have warned of virtual one-party rule by Hasina's Awami League in the South Asian country of 170 million people following the boycott by the BNP and some smaller allies.
Tanvir Chowdhury, Al Jazeera's Dhaka correspondent, said there was a “lack of interest and enthusiasm” among people.
“The city is quiet and gloomy. Nobody wants to speak freely in front of the camera. People secretly say this is all very predictable. It’s not an inclusive election.”
At least four people were killed Friday in a fire on a passenger train that the government described as arson. Several voting booths, schools and a Buddhist monastery were set on fire days before the election.
A person was hacked to death in Munshiganj, south of the capital Dhaka, on Sunday morning, district police chief Mohammad Aslam Khan said, adding it was unclear whether the killing was related to political violence.
Police in Chandpur district, about 110 km (70 miles) from Dhaka, fired tear gas to disperse BNP supporters who had blocked roads to disrupt the vote and thrown stones at security forces, Saiful Islam said , district police chief.
Local media reported that Awami League supporters and independent candidates clashed in some districts, while there were allegations that ruling party cadres stuffed sealed ballot papers into ballot boxes.
Bangladesh deployed nearly 800,000 security personnel to guard polling stations and troops were mobilized nationwide to help maintain peace.
Around 120 million voters chose from almost 2,000 candidates for 300 directly elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 independent candidates, the most since 2001.
The opposition BNP, whose top leaders are either in prison or in exile, says the Awami League supported “dummy candidates” as independents to try to make the election appear credible, a claim the ruling party denies.
Hasina said she did not have to prove the credibility of the election to anyone. “What is important is whether the people of Bangladesh accept this choice.”
Politics in the world's eighth most populous country has long been dominated by rivalry between Hasina, the daughter of the country's founding leader, and two-time prime minister Khaleda Zia, the wife of a former military ruler.
Hasina is credited with turning around Bangladesh's economy and key garment industry. But critics accuse it of authoritarianism, human rights violations, restrictions on freedom of expression and the suppression of dissenting opinions.
Her Awami League party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested, but avoided fielding candidates in some constituencies, an apparent attempt to prevent the legislature from being labeled a one-party institution.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, said none of the participants would be able to seriously challenge Hasina's party.
“The outcome is all but guaranteed and that is the return of the Awami League [to power] again,” he said. “Bangladesh’s democracy will be in an extremely precarious state after the election.”