Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina: From Champion Of Democracy To Iron Lady

Sheikh Hasina, 76, won a fourth straight term and fifth overall in power by sweeping Sunday's general election, which was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for the second time in the last three polls.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina once joined rivals in a fight to restore democracy but her long reign in power has been marked by arrests of opposition leaders, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.

Ms Hasina, 76, won a fourth straight term and fifth overall in power by sweeping Sunday's general election, which was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for the second time in the last three polls.

The daughter of the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, Hasina was fortunate to have been visiting Europe when most of her family were assassinated in a military coup in 1975.