Bangladesh cabinet oath in next four days: Official

Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin is expected to administer the oath of office to the new cabinet of BNP chairman Tarique Rahman within the next four days, officials said on Saturday. Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Friday secured a sweeping victory with more than a two-thirds majority in the landmark parliamentary elections held on Thursday.

The BNP leader is set to become the prime minister, replacing the interim Government chief Muhammad Yunus. “In line with the Constitution, the president will administer the oath at Bangabhaban (presidential palace),” Cabinet Secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid said without giving any specific date for the oath ceremony.

But a senior BNP policymaking leader, preferring anonymity, told PTI that the swearing-in ceremony is expected to be held on February 16 or 17. The Constitution requires the cabinet oath-taking ceremony to be followed by the swearing-in of new Parliament members, while a key aide to Rahman said the existing legal scenario made the issue a little complicated.

“The speaker of the last parliament is supposed to conduct the MPs’ oath of office, but she resigned and is living in an undisclosed location. The deputy speaker is in jail,” he said, wishing not to be named. In such circumstances, he said, the president might select someone to conduct the event of administering the lawmakers’ oath, as “the Constitution has kept a provision” for such an eventuality.

The cabinet secretary, meanwhile, said the Constitution says the MPs-elect must take an oath within three days of the gazette notification, and then the majority party would elect its parliamentary leader. The gazette notification was issued on Saturday morning. Asked for the possible date of the cabinet’s swearing in, Rashid said no date was fixed yet.

“If we are instructed or indicated that it will be held on a certain date and at a certain time, we will work accordingly. Even if it is tomorrow, we will have to prepare for tomorrow. We will be able to tell you the date once we are informed,” the top bureaucrat said. Law ministry officials said, since the gazette notification was issued on Saturday, the three-day period for the oath-taking could be considered from Sunday, covering 15, 16 and 17 February.