Bangladesh: BNP MPs-elect to boycott oath taking ceremony on Jan 3

The newly-elected leaders of the BNP, headed by imprisoned former premier Khaleda Zia, will not take oath as they have rejected the results, the party announced Tuesday, hours after the government said the MPs-elect will be sworn into Parliament on January 3.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which rejected the poll outcome as "farcical" and demanded a fresh election, won five seats in the 300-member Parliament. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling alliance swept to a landslide victory in the 11th general elections, securing a third straight term.

The opposition alliance, comprising the BNP and some smaller parties, criticised the Election Commission (EC) and accused its chief of being biased. The EC, however, ruled out holding fresh polls.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said the newly-elected lawmakers will be sworn into Parliament on January 3 (Thursday), Dhaka Tribune reported. A gazette notification will be issued on Wednesday, he said.

The BNP, alleging irregularities including ballot stuffing and the ouster of opposition polling agents from voting centres, said the party's MPs-elect will not take oath as they have already rejected the results, Daily Star reported. The party took the decision in principle at a meeting of its standing committee at its chairperson's Gulshan office, it said.

BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: "We have rejected the results of the poll. We will also continue our legal battle and action programmes". Fakhrul, who won from the Bogura-6 constituency, said it has been proved that a credible election is not possible under any partisan government.

"The government using state machinery conducted such a farcical election that I think is the most stigmatised election in the country ever," he told reporters, alleging that most of the new voters were denied their right to vote.

BNP's ally Gonoforum, which has won two seats, said all the opposition candidates will submit a memorandum to the Election Commission on Thursday demanding fresh polls. Countrymen witnessed and perceived it well how a farcical drama was staged in the name of the election on December 30.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Awami League and its loyal Election Commission have shown the world how to destroy the election system of an independent and sovereign country," Gonoforum chief Kamal Hossain said in a statement. He said though the results show the Awami League as the winner, 17 crore people of Bangladesh have lost. "Through it, our much-expected democracy has been buried," Hossain claimed.

Fakhrul accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda of being the most biased person. "He (Huda) is a partisan person and his activities were questioned.... his view reflects the governments. He represents the government," he alleged. Fakhrul said the party is now collecting all the evidence of vote rigging and then "we will move forward after talking with alliance partners".

CEC Huda, however, ruled out any scope of holding the fresh election as demanded by the opposition alliance, saying the allegations of ballot stuffing on the night before the election is "completely untrue."

The Awami League-led Grand Alliance won 288 seats in the 300-member Parliament. The ruling alliance, which got nearly 82 per cent of the total votes polled, bettered its previous best performance of 2008 when it bagged 263 seats.

While Hasina was seeking re-election for an overall fourth term as the prime minister, her 73-year-old arch-rival Zia, who is reportedly partially paralysed, faces an uncertain future in a Dhaka jail where she is lodged after her conviction in corruption cases. The BNP has been out of power for 12 years. It boycotted the 10th general elections in 2014.

At least 18 people, including a member of a security agency, were killed and more than 200 others injured in poll-related violence, making it one of the deadliest polls in the country, according to media reports.

Over 600,000 security personnel including several thousand soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed across the nation for the election in which 10.41 crore people were eligible to vote.

(With inputs from agencies.)