The first and only General Election in Pakistan on the basis of " One Man , One Vote, " was held on December 7 , 1971 . The election was decisive , Awami League has had a landslide victory . It secured 167 seats out of 169 from East Pakistan in the Parliament. The reaons for such a landslide victory has been discussed in this program . The contributers say that the immediate cause could be the anger of the Bengalees for the negiligence the Pakistanis showed during a tidal bore in East Pakistan in November 1970 where hundreds and thousands of people died . But they also say that essentially the people in East Bengal considered this election as a refrendum on the demand for autonomy.