Dhaka, February 17 Newly elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmakers were sworn in on Tuesday, six days after the crucial general elections in the country.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured 209 out of 297 seats, while the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami won 68 seats in the 13th Parliamentary elections. The Awami League, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was barred from contesting the polls.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasirudin administered the oath of office to the lawmakers inside the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban as a constitutional alternative in the absence of outgoing Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, who had resigned earlier.
In the changed political scenario, Deputy Speaker Shamsul Haque, who was supposed to conduct the oath in the Speaker's absence, was arrested after a student-led violent street protest, dubbed the "July Uprising," toppled the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League.
The Awami League was disqualified from the February 12 polls when the BNP's once longtime ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, emerged as the main opposition.
According to the official schedule, President Mohammad Shahabuddin would administer the oath of office to the cabinet, installing the BNP in power in the afternoon after the majority party members are set to elect their leader.
The Bangladesh Constitution dictates that the President invite the majority party leader to form the government and administer the cabinet's oath, while the BNP stated that the cabinet would be led by party Chairman Tarique Rahman as the next Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
The BNP had previously stated that the party chairman would be the new Prime Minister of the country.
However, unlike Jamaat, the party declined to take a second oath as members of the "Constitution Reform Council" to endorse the referendum held simultaneously with the general election.
The second oath was aimed at obligating MPs to implement the "July Charter," which demanded a massive rewriting of the Constitution, while the 84-point complex proposal was presented in the referendum in a recognized but nearly esoteric form for voting.
The election commission reported that over 60 percent of voters cast a "yes" vote in the referendum.
"We have not been elected as members of the Constitution Reform Council; no provision of the council is yet to be incorporated in the Constitution," BNP's policy-making standing committee member and newly elected member Salahuddin Ahmed told the BNP MPs shortly before the event as the party members gathered for taking the oath.
In the presence of BNP chairperson Tarique Rahman, he added, "None of us (BNP) members will take the second oath."
