DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina insisted on Monday that her walkover win in an election boycotted by the opposition was legitimate and blamed her rivals for the unprecedented bloodshed n polling day.

In defiant comments the day after her re-election, Hasina accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of making a mistake by shunning the vote and made clear she was not in the mood to offer any olive branches to BNP leader Khaleda Zia, her arch-rival.

Hasina’s ruling Awami League cruised to victory in Sunday’s election after the BNP and 20 other opposition parties refused to take part over fears the contest would be rigged.

But although the landslide should allow Hasina to rule for another five years, the opposition says her victory lacks any credibility. It has called for new polls organised by a caretaker government to be held as soon as possible.

The boycott should “not mean there will be a question of legitimacy”, Hasina told foreign journalists at her official residence in Dhaka.

“People participated in the poll and other parties participated,” she added in reference to a handful of Awami League allies who did stand.

The BNP blames the government for the crisis after it refused demands for the election to be organised by a neutral caretaker administration as in previous years.

The prime minister said she had offered Zia — who has been under de facto house arrest for over a week — the chance to join an interim cross-party government before the vote.

“I offered to share power with our opposition, I have done as much as I can do but they didn’t respond,” she said.

OPPOSITION DEMANDS: BNP vice president Shamsher Chowdhury said the low turnout showed the overwhelming desire for elections to be overseen by a neutral administration.

“This government must declare this election null and void and we need a new election organised by a non-party government,” he told AFP.