Dhaka, Feb 17 (PTI): Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairman Tarique Rahman is set to become the Prime Minister after his party’s Members of Parliament elected him as leader of the parliamentary party on Monday.
The development came as newly elected MPs from across parties took the oath of office, bringing an end to the stalemate over the proposed Constitution Reform Council.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasirudin administered the oath of office to the BNP MPs inside the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in the first phase. Members of Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP) were next in line.
Initially, newly elected Jamaat-e-Islami MPs refused to take the oath of office after the victorious BNP declined to take a second pledge as members of the proposed “Constitution Reform Council”.
“The situation got complicated after BNP declined to take the second oath as members of the ‘Constitution Reform Council’ to endorse the referendum,” officials said.
“We will take no oath unless BNP MPs take oath as members of ‘Constitution Reform Council’ alongside regular parliament members,” Jamaat’s deputy chief Abdullah Mohammad Taher said. He added that his party believed “parliament without the constitutional reform is meaningless”.
The second oath is aimed at obligating MPs to implement the much-publicised “July Charter”, which demands a massive rewriting of the Constitution. The 84-point proposal linked to it was placed before voters in a referendum in what officials described as a cognised but nearly esoteric form.
In a dramatic turn about an hour later, Jamaat and NCP members took oath both as MPs and as members of the Constitution Reform Council. The Election Commission reported that over 60 per cent of voters cast a “yes” vote in the referendum.
However, the BNP reiterated its refusal to take the second oath.
“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 policy-making standing committee member and newly elected MP Salahuddin Ahmed said.
He conveyed the decision to party MPs, saying it was made at the direction of BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman, as they gathered in the Parliament hall to take the oath.
“None of us (BNP members) will take the second oath,” Ahmed said.
The BNP has secured 209 of the 297 seats in the 13th parliamentary elections, while right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami won 68 seats. Deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League was barred from contesting the February 12 polls and was disqualified ahead of the election.
Following the disqualification of the Awami League, the BNP’s former ally and now rival Jamaat-e-Islami emerged as the main opposition in Parliament.
According to the official schedule, President Mohammad Shahabuddin is to administer the oath of office to the new cabinet later in the afternoon, formally installing the BNP in power. Under the Constitution, the President is required to invite the leader of the majority party, Tarique Rahman, to form the government and swear in the cabinet.
The BNP has invited around 1,200 domestic and foreign guests to the swearing-in ceremony.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will represent India at the event. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh are also likely to accompany him.
Maldives President Mohammed Muizzoo, Turkish Undersecretary Beris Ekinci and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr Nalinda Jayatissa are among the foreign dignitaries expected to attend Rahman’s oath-taking ceremony.