Argus News - BNP MPs Sworn in, But Skip Constitution Reform Council Oath

Dhaka, Feb 17: With the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) set to form the government following its decisive victory in the 13th parliamentary election, the party's elected members of Parliament took the oath of office on Tuesday at the South Plaza of the National Parliament in Dhaka, local media reported.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin administered the oath on Tuesday morning in accordance with the country's Constitution, as the offices of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 12th Parliament are lying vacant.

The oath-taking ceremony was conducted by Parliament Secretariat Secretary Kaniz Moula.

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Reports suggest that the BNP MPs did not take the oath as members of the Constitution Reform Council.

At the outset of the oath-taking ceremony, BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed said that on instructions of the party chief, Tarique Rahman, all BNP's newly elected MPs have been instructed not to sign the Constitution Reform Council form, since they were not elected as members of the council, Bangladesh's leading newspaper, The Daily Star, reported.

Salauddin also said that the Constitution Reform Council is not part of the Constitution and must first be incorporated into the Constitution in line with the outcome of the referendum.

He added that detailed procedures are also required, with specific guidelines on who would administer the oath to members of the Constitution Reform Council.

The 13th parliamentary election was held alongside the referendum on the July National Charter on February 12 in 299 out of the country's 300 constituencies.

In the elections, the BNP won 209 parliamentary seats, while the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami secured 68 seats.

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BNP's chairman Tarique, who won from two constituencies, vacated the Bogura-6 seat for a by-election and took oath as a member of Parliament from the Dhaka-17 constituency.

Meanwhile, according to a report in the leading Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo, newly elected MPs from the 11-party alliance, including the Jamaat-e-Islami and National Citizen Party (NCP), are considering refraining from taking their parliamentary oaths.

The move reportedly came in response to the BNP's decision to abstain from the constitutional reform council oath.

(IANS)