DHAKA — Newly elected members for the reserved women’s seats of Bangladesh’s 13th parliament were formally sworn in on Sunday.
Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad administered the oath to the reserved-seat members at the oath chamber of the parliament secretariat on Sunday, May 3.
The parliament secretariat said the oath ceremony took place at 9 p.m. in the oath chamber on Level 1 of the east block of the Parliament Building. The speaker read out the oath to the newly elected women representatives. With the swearing-in of the reserved-seat members, the 13th parliament is now complete.
Earlier, on April 30, the Election Commission published a gazette listing 49 women MPs elected unopposed to the reserved seats of the 13th parliament.
The 36 women MPs from the BNP are Selima Rahman, Shirin Sultana, Rasheda Begum Hira, Rehana Akhter Ranu, Newaz Halima Arly, Farida Yasmin, Bilkis Islam, Shakila Farzana, Helen Jerin Khan, Nilofar Chowdhury Moni, Nipun Roy Chowdhury, Ziba Amina Khan, Mahmuda Habiba, Mosa. Sabira Sultana, Sansila Jebrin, Sanjida Islam, Sultana Ahmed, Fahmida Haque, Anna Minz, Subarna Sikdar, Shamim Ara Begum Swapna, Mossammat Shammi Akhter, Ferdousi Ahmed, Bithika Binte Hossain, Suraiya Jerin, Mansura Akhter, Joharat Adib Chowdhury, Momtaz Alo, Fahima Nasrin, Arifa Sultana, Sanjida Yasmin, Nadia Pathan Papon, Showkat Ara Akhter, Madhabi Marma, Selina Sultana and Rezeka Sultana.
The 12 MPs from the Jamaat-led alliance are Nurunnisa Siddika, Marzia Begum, Sabikunnahar Munni, Najmun Nahar Nilu, Mahfuza Hannan, Sajeda Samad, Shamsunnahar Begum, engineer Mardia Mumtaz, Rokeya Begum, Dr. Mahmuda Alam Mitu, Tasmia Pradhan and engineer Mahbuba Hakim.
A gazette was also published declaring Sultana Jasmin of the independent alliance an MP-elect.
Separately, the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday declared valid the nomination of Nusrat Tabassum, a Jamaat-allied candidate and a leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP), for the reserved women’s seats of the 13th parliament. However, Nusrat Tabassum’s name is not being published in the gazette because of legal processes and time set aside for appeals, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said. As a result, she could not take part in the oath ceremony Sunday night.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report