Bangladesh MPs take oath after 11th national election

The newly-elected members of Bangladesh’s 11th national parliament are being sworn in to office.

The ceremony began at the oath-taking chamber of the parliament at 11am Thursday, with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury administering oaths of office to Awami League MPs, who will form the largest bloc.

Speaker Chaudhury began by administering the oath of office on herself and then proceeded to reading out the oath to other MPs.

The Jatiya Paty MPs were sworn in around 12.30pm, but party chairman and former military strongman HM Ershad was not there.

The ruling Awami League and its close allies with the boat symbol have swept the results of the 11th national election held on Sunday, securing 267 seats.

Jatiya Party, an ally in the ruling party-led coalition, came in second with 20 seats with the plough symbol, but its leaders are yet to decide whether the party will remain on as the main opposition party.

The Jatiya Oikya Front, the opposition alliance that includes the BNP, won seven seats. The alliance has rejected the outcome of the election as 'farcical' citing rigging and violence. 

The Oikya Front said it will not be participating in the ceremony, and instead announced plans to demand a fresh election by submitting a memorandum to the Election Commission around 3pm.

All ‘paddy-sheaf’ candidates have been called for a meeting with BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, scheduled at the chairperson’s Gulshan offices at 11am Thursday. 

# According to the Bangladesh constitution, members of parliament must be sworn in to office within three days of the publication of the gazette

# The first session of the new parliament must be convened within 30 days of the oath-taking ceremony

# A parliamentarian will lose their membership in case he or she fails to take oath or notify the speaker within 90 days of the start of the first session

On Wednesday, the Election Commission published a gazette listing the details of winners from 298 constituencies.

The Bangladesh parliament comprises 300 seats for elected representatives. But votes were held at 299 constituencies, after the death of a candidate prior to the election led to the rescheduling of voting at Gaibandha-3.

On the election day, the outcome of the voting at Brahmanbaria-2 was halted due to violence during voting.