Dhaka  - Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia has rejected the results of the country's general election, saying the outcome was stage-managed by the Election Commission, newspapers reported Wednesday.

"The Election Commission only announced a staged result set earlier," said Zia, who heads an alliance led by her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) at a press briefing late Tuesday night

Zia lost Monday's elections by a huge margin to an alliance led by its arch-rival, the Awami League of Sheikh Hasina Wazed, also a former prime minister.

Zia's BNP secured 29 electoral constituencies out of 299 while the Awami League was poised to form a new government after winning 230 seats.

Monday's election was held to return Bangladesh to a democratic system, ending two years of rule by a military-backed administration that was installed in early 2007 during a violent power struggle between the main political forces of the impoverished South Asian nation.

The polls were hailed by both local and international observers as credible, mostly peaceful and fair.

However, Zia, after a meeting with some of her policymakers, said, "This farcical election is unacceptable to [the] BNP."

She said the party had anticipated a farcical poll and warned the nation beforehand. "Everyone has witnessed how the blueprint has been implemented. No one has seen such rigging of votes in the past," Zia added.

Polling was stopped at different centres early, she said, adding that the party also received reports of vote rigging and other irregularities.

The interim administration headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed would hand over authority to a new government within 10 days, an aide said.

Election winner Hasina the heads of international election monitoring missions now deployed in Bangladesh, that she wished to work with the opposition parties in parliament to strengthen democracy and build a prosperous country.

Monday's polls were monitored by more than 250,000 election observers from Bangladesh and abroad. Voter turnout was above 80 per cent amid tight security.

The election had been originally scheduled for January 2007, but was postponed following the declaration of a state of emergency in the wake of political violence. The country has been under a military-backed caretaker government since. (dpa)