In Bangladesh, political tensions escalated yesterday when newly elected members of the 13th Parliament disagreed over taking a second oath as members of the proposed Constitutional Reform Council. Members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) only took the oath as Members of Parliament at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, refusing to recite the second pledge.
Party leaders stated that they were elected as MPs, not as council members, and argued that the council must first be incorporated into the Constitution through parliamentary procedures. Several independent and smaller party figures, including Nurul Haque Nur and Zonayed Saki, also refrained from taking the Reform Council oath. In contrast, lawmakers from the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party took both the parliamentary oath and the Reform Council oath administered by the state's Chief Election Commissioner.
This disagreement follows a recent referendum endorsing constitutional reform and the July National Charter, which proposes the formation of a Constitutional Reform Council. The BNP stated that it remains committed to reform but insists that changes must first be legally adopted in parliament. Legal experts also questioned the constitutional validity of administering a separate oath for a council not yet formally recognized in the Constitution, raising the possibility of future court challenges.