International media widely covered yesterday's national election that saw deadly clashes and accusations of vote rigging.

In a news report, the Associated Press said it received more than 50 calls from people across Bangladesh, who identified themselves as opposition supporters.

They complained of intimidation and threats, and being forced to vote in front of ruling party men inside polling booths, it mentioned.

"Hasina's use of the state machinery to subjugate the opposition virtually ensures her electoral victory," Sasha Riser-Kositsky, a South Asia analyst for the New York-based Eurasia Group, told AP.

Minutes before the polls opened, a BBC correspondent saw filled ballot boxes at a polling centre in Chittagong city. The presiding officer declined to comment.

Only the ruling party's polling agents were present there and several other polling centres in the port city.

BBC's South Asia Regional Editor Anbarasan Ethirajan said if the opposition's claims of widespread vote rigging are proved, then it will likely to raise questions over the credibility of the election process and the legitimacy of the new government, according to a BBC report.

The Guardian in its report headlined “Bangladesh opposition reject 'farcical' election and demand new vote”, mentioned that dozens of candidates pulled out, claiming the ruling Awami League rigged the country's first contested election in a decade.

The Election Commission told Reuters that it was investigating allegations of vote rigging coming from across the country.

“Allegations are coming from across the country and those are under investigation,” SM Asaduzzaman, a spokesman for the EC, told the news agency.

The Economic Times of India reported that the voting in a tense election to choose a new government in Bangladesh ended amid allegations of manipulations by ruling party men.

The Times of India highlighted the introduction of EVMs in six parliamentary constituencies for the first time in a general election, a move which received mixed responses from the voters amid reports of glitches at some booths.

Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed, Orchid Chakma, Prabir Das, Amran Hossain, Sk Enamul Haq

A presiding officer brings out the ballot papers for a voter who uses a wheelchair at Dania College centre in the capital's Jatrabari. Many people with disabilities faced difficulties casting votes as most of the centres were not disabled-friendly.

A police team outside a voting centre in Narayanganj.

Shamim Osman, AL's candidate for Narayanganj-4, sips a cup of tea while exchanging greetings with voters outside a polling centre in Dharmaganj area.

Two first-time voters show off their ink covered thumbs after voting at Avoy Bonodini High School in the capital's Rajarbagh.

Urdu-speaking voters make their way to a voting centre at Dhaka Residential Model College in the capital.

A crowd gathers outside the polling centre at Madhubagh Madrasa in the capital after the Awami League men shut the gate and refused to let anyone in.

Voters checking their phones for their voter numbers at Ali Ahmed Majumder School and College in Dhaka's Goran. Many were turned away after failing to find the number.

Police evicted protesters demanding fresh election under a non-partisan caretaker government in front of Jatiya Press Club this morning.

Around 40 to 50 people under the banner of ‘National Unity for Franchise and Good Governance’ formed a human chain around 11:00am demanding re-election under a neutral caretaker government, our staff correspondent reports from the spot.

However, police evicted the protesters soon after they gathered there and snatched their banner, said ABM Mostofa Amin, the convener of the platform.

“We cannot accept the kind of rigging that took place in the 11th parliamentary elections. We demand a fresh election be held under a non-partisan caretaker government immediately,” he said.

He alleged that police foiled their peaceful demonstration with a “logical demand”.

THE ELECTION RESULT

The Awami League-led Grand Alliance secured a landslide victory in the national election held on Sunday, December 30, winning in 288 out of 300 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad.

HOW WAS THE ELECTION?

Voting for the 11th parliamentary election ended peacefully in Dhaka; but was tainted with violence elsewhere across the country and cost the lives of at least a dozen people.

Reports of casualties came in from Cumilla, Chattogram, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangamati, Cox’s Bazar, Bogura, Noakhali, Narsingdi and Gazipur.

Allegations of vote rigging, election clashes, intimidation and irregularities came in from several other constituencies and capital Dhaka city.

Also, the election saw opposition candidates boycotting elections in at least 43 constituencies; 42 of who were Jatiya Oikyafront runners.

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court, challenging the oath-taking of lawmakers elected in the December 30 polls last year.

Advocate Md Taherul Islam Tawhid submitted the petition to the HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal.

Earlier in the day, another HC bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir Lytton refused to permit Advocate Taherul to move the same petition before it, saying that the petition is “premature” as all the elected lawmakers are yet to take oath, Barrister Saqeb Mahbub, a lawyer for the petitioner, told The Daily Star.

He also said the writ petition might be filed and moved today before the bench led by Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury.

Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon appeared for the petitioner seeking permission from the HC benches to file and move the petition before the court.

Citing the petition, Barrister Shanjid Siddique, another lawyer for the petitioner, told this newspaper that oath-taking of the persons elected in 11th national polls violated articles 123(3) and 148(3) of the constitution, as the tenure of the 10th parliament is yet to expire.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday said she would not say anything about Sunday's national election.

She said this when reporters asked her about the election after a hearing of the Niko graft case at a makeshift court inside the Old Dhaka Central Jail.

As she was being taken back to her cell in a wheelchair, she said, “My legs ache too much.”

During the hearing, she told the court, “I won't come to the court if it sits at a place like this. The court can't run here. Our people can't come here. Give me sentence if you want….I won't come to this court.”

Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman of the Special Judge Court-9 of Dhaka said, “Start the charge hearing afresh as I am new in this case. I will hear everyone's speech.”

After that, Public Prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission Mosharraf Hossain Kajol read out the charges against Khaleda and 10 others.

BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed, an accused in the case, told the court, “We are yet to get the documents stating the allegations against us although we have applied for them before. We need to read those documents to be able to fight the legal battle.”

He also said the setting of the court was not appropriate for holding a trial as there was no proper seating arrangement for lawyer and others.

Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol argued that the defense was trying to delay the charge framing by saying those things.

The court fixed January 13 for the next hearing.

The judge also kept a petition in the case file submitted by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam on November 22 last year seeking permission to produce an FBI agent and two Canadian police as witnesses before the court to testify.

On December 9, 2007, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing Khaleda and 10 others of abusing power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko.