Hasina's landslide restores democracy to Bangladesh

Bangladesh's charismatic leader Sheikh Hasina, who favours strong ties with India, has scripted a stunning victory trouncing rival BNP in the country's first polls in seven years, restoring democracy in the impoverished nation after two years of military-led rule.

Hasina's Awami League-led alliance clinched 258 seats of the total 300 seats in parliament leaving only 31 constituencies to her archrival Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party, according to "unofficial" results published by the Election Commission.

Five seats went to other small parties and independents while results of the four others were pending. The poll outcome was the worst showing by Zia's BNP, while it was the best by Awami League since the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 after it was liberated from Pakistan.

With the election process coming to an end, the army-backed administration said it would handover the power to the democratically-elected government within 10 days after the results were gazetted and oaths taken.

"The new government will be formed after the members-elect take oath as MPs, then the caretaker government will handover charge to the incumbent new administration," adviser to the interim-government M Anwarul Iqbal said.

Soon after the results emerged, a beaming 61-year-old Hasina, who lost power to BNP by a huge margin in 2001, asked her party to show restraint and not to stage any victory processions until the results were officially published.

She also urged her rivals to accept the results to end the years of confrontational politics.

Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh founder late Sheikh Mujabir Rehman.