While the Election Commission has been slow to announce the results of Sunday's election, TV stations have reported that Hasina's Awami League won 216 seats out of 299. Independent candidates took 52, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, took 11 seats.

At least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote but the election day passed in relative calm with a turnout of around 40 per cent.

The main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former premier Khaleda Zia, has refused to accept the election outcome, saying voters rejected the government's one-sided election.

Zia's party and its allied groups accuse Hasina of turning Bangladesh into a one-party state and muzzling dissent and civil society.

Authorities blame much of the violence on the BNP and arrested seven members over an arson attack on a train which caused four deaths. The party denied any role in the incident.

On Sunday, a supporter of an Awami League candidate was stabbed to death in Munshiganj district near the capital, Dhaka, officials said.

The vote, like previous elections, has been defined by the bitter rivalry between Hasina's Awami League and the BNP, led by Zia, who is ailing and under house arrest on corruption charges, which her supporters claim are politically motivated.

The two women ran the country alternately for many years, cementing a feud that has since polarised Bangladesh's politics and fuelled violence around elections.

The past two elections held under Hasina were also sullied by allegations of vote-rigging -- which authorities have denied -- and another boycott by opposition parties.

The BNP says about 20,000 of its members were jailed ahead of the vote on trumped-up charges. The government denied that arrests were made due to political leanings, and between 2,000-3,000 were arrested.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former minister and BNP leader, said the spate of arrests forced him and scores of other party members to go into hiding for weeks.

"It was the only way we could ensure our safety and carry on raising our voice," he said.

"We are not boycotting an election -- what we are boycotting is a fake and one-sided election that this government is carrying out," Khan added.

Hasina is credited with transforming the Bangladeshi economy and making its garment sector one of the world's most competitive. Her supporters say she has staved off military coups and neutralised the threat of Islamic militancy.

Yet critics say her rise has risked turning Bangladesh into becoming a one-party state where democracy is under threat, with an increasing use of oppressive tools to mute critics, shrink press freedoms and restrict civil society.

The global economic slowdown is also being felt in Bangladesh, exposing cracks in its economy that have triggered labour unrest and dissatisfaction with the government.

After casting her ballot, Hasina dismissed concerns over the legitimacy of the vote, telling reporters she was accountable to the people.

"I'm trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country," she added. "Without democracy, you cannot make any development."

Australian Associated Press