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Dhaka, Bangladesh – The leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has said that Sunday’s general election was a “fraud” and marred by widespread irregularities.

“Yesterday’s election was totally fraud,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told Al Jazeera after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina registered an unprecedented victory.

The ruling Awami League (AL) captured 288 out of 298 seats for which elections were held, winning a whopping 96 percent of the seats, drawing criticism from the opposition.

“Ballot papers were stuffed on the night before the election. Except for few, irregularities were found in almost all the constituencies. It was preplanned, and the result was decided much earlier,” Alamgir alleged.

The BNP leader said that the vote rigging was facilitated by “the government agencies, the police and other law enforcement agencies in collaboration with election commission officials”.

This election will destroy people’s remaining faith in election system in Bangladesh.

Asif Nazrul, professor of law at Dhaka University

“This is a mockery of democracy. Bangladesh has lost an opportunity to comeback to democracy,” said Alamgir, who is among the seven candidates to win their seats.

The BNP had boycotted the last election held in 2014.

The massive win reminded of the controversial February 1996 parliamentary elections in which the BNP won 278 seats amid boycotts. It had triggered countrywide protests forcing the BNP out.

Call for fresh election

Later on Monday, the opposition alliance Jatiya Oikya Front (National Unity Front) re-iterated their demands for fresh election under a “nonpartisan government”.

“A drama in the name of national election was staged yesterday and the countrymen perceived from their hearts that how the election process of a sovereign country was destroyed,” Kamal Hossain, convener of the Jatiya Oikya Front, said at a press conference on Monday.

Hossain, a former ally of Hasina and a well-respected jurist, became the face of the opposition alliance as the BNP leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was barred from polls because of corruption conviction. 

The front said it will submit a memorandum to the election commission on Thursday.

But at a press conference held at the election commission office in Dhaka Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda put to rest the opposition demand for re-election.

“There is no scope to hold the national election again,” Huda said a day after the 11th general election.

The CEC on Monday put its stamp on the unofficial results, and added that the voter turnout in the violence-marred polls was 80 percent.

The fatigue of the month-long election process was visible on Dhaka’s roads on Monday where traffic was thin with para-military vehicles still making rounds of the streets.

‘Kicked out of the polling booth’

Meanwhile, many Bangladeshi voters came on social media to share their stories, some of them complaining of irregularities on the election day.

Shaquib Ahmed, a Dhaka resident, told Al Jazeera that he was kicked out of the polling booth after he voted for the BNP.

“There was no curtained area in the room to vote. As I put my seal on the BNP symbol a man standing beside me snatched the ballot paper away and shouted, ‘what do you think you are doing?’” he said.

The 34-year-old Ahmed says he was later abused at Dhaka’s Tejgaon College polling centre. “I did not protest as there were other people with him and it was very intimidating,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

Mahbub Uddin Khokon, a former BNP member of parliament, blamed the “fraudulent” election for his defeat in Noakhali 1 constituency.

“The election commission and the government collectively committed fraud against the nation, the voter, and the constitution,” said Khokon, who is the secretary of Supreme Court Bar Council.

“The night before the election they stuffed ballot boxes in each centre with the help of the police,” he alleged.

“I met with the chief election commissioner three times before the election to take action against the police who were lodging false cases against opposition members. He did not do anything.”

Hasina rejects rigging charges

But Prime Minister Hasina, who is set for a fourth term in office, rejected the vote rigging charges, saying people voted her party to power for development work done in her 10-year rule.

“The countrymen have gained benefit of the development work of my government, and thus they cast their votes for us,” She told foreign observers on Monday.

Hasina has led Bangladesh on path of rapid economic growth and plans to turn this poor South Asian nation of 160 million people into a middle income country by 2021.

An election observer from India, a close ally of Bangladesh, lauded election as “peaceful”. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to congratulate Hasina on securing absolute a majority in 350-member parliament. Another 50 seats are reserved for women.

Many observers from South Asian countries, Al Jazeera spoke to, said that some polling stations were not crowded and in many cases wore a deserted look.

Abdur Rahman Salah Rasheed was one of the election observers who was taken to four polling stations in Gazipur.

Rasheed, the acting secretary general of election commission of Maldives, said that in the morning polling centres were “deserted”.

“We asked them why there are not many people. They told us it was foggy and early morning. Some of the places were crowded though.

“We went to Dhaka 17 centre for counting but did not find any opposition polling agent. We even asked them where is opposition?”

One member of observer mission, who refused to be identified, showed his bafflement at the scale of the ruling party’s victory.

At least 19 people were killed in Sunday’s election, which was marred by reports of voting irregularities such as ballot stuffing and intimidation.

An observer team from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday said the vote was peaceful. “We have heard the news about the deaths, but they do not reflect the overall situation, which was peaceful,” it said in a press release.

“The election was credible based on all acceptable standards,” Hameed A Opeloyeru, the head of the observer team told reporters.

The election was credible based on all acceptable standards.

Hameed A Opeloyeru, head of the OIC observer team

But Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), in a written statement released on Monday, expressed concern at the allegations of misconduct during the election.

It called for forming a judicial committee to investigate the allegations.

Leading up to the polls, opposition complained of mass arrests and intimidation by police and ruling party supporters, but the government said the accusations were “exaggerated”.

Asif Nazrul, a professor of law at Dhaka University, said “the election will destroy people’s remaining faith in election system in Bangladesh”.

“It was not an election at all. It was an ugly and brutal hijacking of people’s right to choose their representative by all the state apparatus in alliance with ruling party goons.

“It would lead into tyranny and hurt the dignity of the society very deeply,” he said.

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition at hundreds of demonstrators in central Khartoum on Monday as demonstrators attempted to march to President Omar al-Bashir’s palace calling on him to “step down”.

Crowds of men and women chanting “freedom, peace and justice” and “revolution is the people’s choice” gathered in the capital’s downtown area where they were quickly confronted by anti-riot police, witnesses told AFP.

Officers made dozens of arrests, as others looked on from rooftops and armoured vehicles with machine guns parked up in surrounding streets. Hundreds of policemen and security forces deployed to key squares across the capital in the early morning to prevent the march.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said: “Police have fired tear gas and live ammunition [during the protests]. Some [protesters] have been reportedly injured. It is not clear yet if there are fatalities.”

According to Sara Abdelgalil, President of the Sudanese Doctors’ Union in the UK, hospitals reported at least four protesters were wounded during the demonstrations. 

“One fractured skull, one live bullet to the thigh, one in the neck and a burn in the neck from the teargas. There are also cases of acute asthma attacks and other minor injuries,” Abdelgalil told Al Jazeera. 

Several lawyers on strike outside courthouses in Khartoum and in Sudan’s second-largest city Wad Madani were also arrested, one of the lawyers told Reuters news agency.

Anger over rising prices, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crisis has fueled demonstrations across Sudan over the past two weeks. The demonstrations quickly developed into growing anti-government rallies demanding that al-Bashir step down immediately.

Authorities have shut schools and declared states of emergency in several regions since protests first broke out in the northeastern city of Atbara on December 19. Security forces have repeatedly used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition against demonstrations, witnesses say.

According to government estimates, at least 19 people, including two security personnel, were killed in clashes in the initial days of demonstrations. Amnesty International last week said it estimated the death toll to be at 37.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed “for calm and restraint” and called on “the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths and violence”.

Sudan is facing an acute foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation despite Washington lifting an economic embargo in October 2017.

Inflation is running at 70 percent and the Sudanese pound has plunged in value, while shortages of bread and fuel have regularly hit several cities.

Monday’s march was called for by a group of professionals including doctors, teachers and engineers, after it organised a similar rally on December 25.

“We will march towards the presidential palace calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down,” the Sudanese Professionals’ Association said in a statement late on Sunday.

Opposition groups and prominent rebel chief Abdel Wahid al-Nur from war-torn Darfur have also urged their supporters to participate in the march.

Addressing police generals on Sunday, al-Bashir cited a Quran verse about retribution in an apparent defence of security measures against protesters: “What is retribution? It’s killing, is it not? It is execution. Our Lord described as life because it is a means of deterring others so that we can maintain security.”

Activists and opposition figures had renewed calls on Sunday for the mass protest on the eve of Sudan’s Independence Day.

Al-Bashir is expected to deliver a nationwide address to mark the holiday later on Monday.