DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh's former premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed won the country's first election since 2001 in a landslide Tuesday, crushing her bitter rival to retake power in the impoverished south Asian nation. The Election Commission said Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party had won 230 of the 297 seats in parliament counted so far, giving her an overwhelming win in Monday's vote with just a few results still to be tallied. "She has a clear majority to govern without any other party," commission spokesman SM Asaduzzaman told AFP. Sh Hasina's rival Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist Party said elections in which she lost by a landslide were "not acceptable", according to a broadcast on national television. "I thank the Chief Election Commissioner for implementing a stage-managed election. This election is not acceptable to the BNP," said Khaleda during a short address broadcast on private TV station NTV just after midnight following an emergency meeting with party leaders. "It also won't be acceptable to the people," she added. She said the high voter turnout numbers given by the Election Commission were fake and that there was rampant vote-rigging, which the BNP could prove. Zia's BNP won just 29 of the possible 300 seats in Monday's vote. The private online newspaper bdnews24.com said Khaleda and the BNP were considering what legal steps to take. "There have been a lot of irregularities," BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed said earlier. A UN-funded digital electoral roll, which eliminated 12.7 million fake names, appeared to have put a lid on the widespread vote rigging seen in previous polls, observers said. The election attracted a record voter turnout of 85pc, with the figure reaching 90pc in rural areas, the Election Commission said. A team of south Asian poll monitors concluded that voting had been "free, fair and transparent," while EU observers also said procedures had been correctly followed. "All Bangladeshis can take great pride in the success of these elections," the US State Department said in a statement. "The high voter turnout underscores the people's desire to see democracy restored as well to have a voice in their future," it said. The Jama'at-e-Islami, the BNP's key partner, was way down on the 17 seats it garnered in 2001, winning just two this time. Some 50,000 troops had been on alert nationwide during Monday's voting, while 600,000 police officers were deployed to crack down on fraud or disruption at the 35,000 polling booths. There were also 200,000 observers monitoring the poll, including 2,500 from abroad.