Shakhawat Liton
Members-elect of parliament belonging to Awami League (AL)-led grand alliance will take oath this afternoon at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban and the remaining MPs-elect will be sworn in tomorrow.
Outgoing Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar will administer the oath at the ‘oath hall’ completing all preparations in a hurry as the alliance is set to assume power on Monday or Tuesday.
The AL parliamentary party (ALPP) will convene as soon as possible to elect party chief Sheikh Hasina leader of the ALPP, and request the president to appoint her as prime minister.
Abdus Shahid, AL MP-elect and former chief whip of the opposition, last night told The Daily Star that they might meet this evening after the oath-taking if possible.
According to the constitution, the president shall appoint as prime minister the member of parliament who appears to him to command support of majority of the parliament members.
With Hasina sworn in as prime minister, nearly two-year long tenure of the caretaker government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed will end automatically.
A senior official of cabinet division said yesterday they have completed preparations, and are now waiting for a specific date for formation of the cabinet.
As per arrangements made by the parliament secretariat, 262 lawmakers-elect belonging to the grand alliance that won a landslide victory in Monday’s battle of ballots will take oath on the first day.
With the oath taking of AL’s 230 lawmakers, this will be the highest number of MPs representing a single political party in the House since restoration of democracy in 1990.
Thirty-two MPs-elect from other components of the grand alliance– Jatiya Party’s 27, Jatiya Samajtantirik Dal’s three and Workers Party’s two — will also take oath today.
The rest 37 lawmakers-elect– 32 from BNP-led four-party combine, one from Liberal Democratic Party and four elected as independent candidates– will take oath tomorrow afternoon at the same place.
With the swearing in of BNP’s 29 lawmakers-elect, the party will have the lowest number of MPs since its founding in 1979.
BNP’s four-party allies Jamaat-e-Islami secured only two seats and BJP one seat in Monday’s election.
Officials at the parliament secretariat said they could not send invitation to the MPs-elect yesterday for shortage of time.
They received the gazette on poll results published by the Election Commission (EC) yesterday morning.
“So, we were not able to send invitation to the lawmakers-elect. Any lawmakers can collect invitation letters by sending their representatives or can collect that from the reception wing prior to taking oath,” said a senior official at the parliament secretariat.
The secretariat yesterday sent officials to Sheikh Hasina to collect a letter from her specifying the constituency she wants to represent, Hasina told them that she would do so before taking oath, sources said.
The AL chief won three seats in the parliamentary election.
Similarly, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad will also have to specify the seat they want to represent as each of them won three seats.
As a result, the EC will have to hold by-election to six seats within next 90 days.
In a press release yesterday, the parliament secretariat drew attention of the lawmakers-elect to their constitutional obligations.
NEW LAWMAKERS
After taking oath, the newly-elected lawmakers will sign a register book at the parliament secretary’s office. Their photographs will be taken there for identity cards. But if they want, they can bring with them nine copies of their photographs each.
The parliament secretariat yesterday issued a circular drawing attention of the lawmakers-elect to the procedure of getting diplomatic passports for them and their spouses, and renewal of those.
The secretariat will also give them necessary forms to have official telephone and life insurance.
Officials at the secretariat will collect specimen signatures of lawmakers for giving their allowances, and help them to fill up forms regarding travel.
Moreover, the secretariat will provide them copies of the constitution, rules of procedure of the parliament and remuneration and allowances order 1972.
PARLIAMENT SESSION
The first session of the 9th parliament will begin at the end of this month. The constitution provides that parliament shall be summoned to meet within 30 days of announcement of the results of any general election.
The EC on Thursday published the results of ninth parliamentary election in the gazette.
At its inaugural session, the parliament will elect on the first day its speaker and deputy speaker. And the government will place over 100 ordinances promulgated during the tenure of the caretaker government for consideration within 30 days.
The House will elect the country’s new president within 30 days of its first sitting, and it will also have to decide on the legality of the caretaker government.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
