Fresh from her victory in a national election, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday the economic progress of her country was her main aim in the next five years.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which participated in the 2018 vote but kept away in 2014, boycotted the polls after Hasina refused its demands to resign and allow a neutral authority to run the general election.

"Each political party has right to take a decision. The absence of one party in election does not mean democracy is absent," Hasina, who swept to a fourth term in power, told reporters. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly and Ruma Paul, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Alex Richardson)