Dhaka, Dec 29 (IANS) Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was among the early winners and nominees of her Awami League (AL) and allied parties were leading in several seats as counting began immediately after voting ended in the general election Monday.Hasina scored a landslide vcictory, as per unofficial results announced by the Election Comnmission for the Gopalganj-3 seat that has been her ancenstral home and houses the graves of her family members, including the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Besides Gopalganj-3, she also won Rangpur-6 in northern Bangladesh.

The former prime minister got 165,178 votes in Gopalganj-3 constituency with her rival four-party alliance candidate S.M. Zilani getting only 4,068 votes.

In Rangpur-6, Hasina bagged 172,044 votes while her rival four-party’s Noor Mohammad Mandal got 38,440 votes.

Hasina and her allies predicted a landslide in the keenly contested election that was delayed because she had boycotted it in January last year.

The first official announcement of the results, however, went to the BNP. In Feni-2, BNP nominee Joynal Abedin defeated journalist Iqbal Sobhan Choudhury.

Among those AL nominees who established early leads as counting continued non-stop was party presidium’s member Matia Chowdhury (Sherpur).

In Sylhet-1, former finance minister M. Saifur Rahman, considered close to Zia, was trailing by a narrow margin to Abdul Mal Abdul Muhit of the Hasina-led nine-party alliance.