Who is Sheikh Hasina ?

Hasina, who has promised to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income nation by 2021, is set to be PM for the fourth term.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won a third consecutive term in office in the just concluded general elections, which was dubbed "farcical" by the leader of the Jatiya Oikya Front - the main opposition alliance.

"We reject the farcical election and want the election commission to hold a fresh election under a non-partisan administration," said Kamal Hossain, an 82-year-old jurist who wrote the country's secular constitution.

Hasina's Awami League (AL) party is on course to get an absolute majority in the 350-seat parliament, called as Jatiya Sangsad. Fifty seats are reserved for women.

Her party has been in power since 2008.

The AL pushed a narrative of development on the back of the rapid economic growth in the last 10 years.

The country of 160 million people has achieved near self-sufficiency in food production and raised average life expectancy to levels higher than its big neighbour India.

Since Hasina, 71, took power in 2008, Bangladesh's per capita income has seen a threefold increase. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $250bn in 2017.