Bangladesh’s newly-elected MPs to take oath of office today

DHAKA: The newly-elected members of Bangladesh's Parliament will take the oath of office on Wednesday, a top government official confirmed on Tuesday. K.M. Abdus Salam, senior secretary of the Parliament Secretariat, told Xinhua news agency that Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will administer the oath of office to the lawmakers, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at a ceremony in capital Dhaka at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The election results will be published in the form of a gazette on Tuesday, the senior secretary added.

According to the Election Commission, the ruling Awami League (AL) party led by Hasina won 223 out of 298 seats in the polls conducted on Sunday, more than enough for her party to form a straight fourth five-year term government since January 2009 after running the country from 1996-2001. Sheikh Hasina is officially the longest-serving leader in Bangladesh's history. The result showed that independent candidates won 61 seats while the Jatiya Party bagged 11 seats and other AL allies got two seats.

Apart from this, another political group the Bangladesh Kalyan Party secured one seat. Voter turnout was recorded at 41.8 per cent. The polls were held amid mass violence and arrests of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders and supporters. The BNP boycotted the election after the AL rejected their demands for an independent caretaker government to preside over the elections. The opposition party jad also called on people to not cast their votes.

According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), nearly 10,000 activists were arrested after an opposition rally on October 28, 2023 turned violent, resulting in the deaths of at least 16 people and injuring more than 5,500, reports the BBC. It accused the government of "filling prisons with the ruling Awami League's political opponents". The Awami League has however, denied these accusations. (IANS)

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