Dhaka, Feb 15: The newly-elected Members of Parliament of Bangladesh are scheduled to take oath on Tuesday morning, followed by the swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet in the evening, local media reported.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin is likely to administer the oath of office to the newly elected parliament members at 10 am, while President Mohammed Shahabuddin will administer the oath to the new cabinet of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), chairman Tarique Rahman at 4 pm.
According to the Election Commission (EC), the BNP led by Rahman has bagged 209 out of 297 seats, while right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami secured 68 seats.
“Most probably — I repeat, most probably — under the current circumstances, the oath will be administered by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC),” Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Asif Nazrul was reported as saying.
Rahman is set to become the prime minister for the first time. He will replace the interim government chief, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, under whose tenure Dhaka’s relations with New Delhi witnessed a significant downturn.
BNP has informed authorities that it will elect its parliamentary party leader immediately after the swearing-in, bdnews24 quoted Nazrul as saying.
“We have been informed that the President will administer the oath of office (to the new cabinet) on Tuesday at the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) complex,” a Bangabhaban (presidential palace) official said on the condition of anonymity on Saturday.
Bangladesh has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other regional leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s next prime minister, Tarique Rahman, on February 17, according to a BNP statement on Saturday.
According to the Third Schedule of the Constitution, the CEC is the third choice for the job in the absence of the outgoing parliament’s speaker and deputy speaker.
“The speaker of the last parliament is supposed to administer the oath of office to the MPs, but she resigned and is living in an undisclosed location while the deputy speaker is in jail,” he said.
In another development, the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) is preparing to form a shadow cabinet, according to party spokesperson and former interim government advisor Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, bdnews24 reported.
The proposed shadow cabinet would act as a watchdog over the government, Asif posted on social media, it said.
Bangladesh held the significant 13th parliamentary election on February 12 after a period of tumultuous political vacuum, instability and fragile security situation, including widespread attacks on minorities after the student-led protests brought down the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting the polls, which recorded 59.44 per cent voter turnout. (PTI)
