Eleven newly-elected members of parliament (MPs) from the Jatiya Party (JaPa) will take the oath of office on Wednesday.
A statement regarding the oath-taking, signed by the party's Joint office secretary, Mahmud Alam, came Tuesday evening.
Earlier in the day, JaPa Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu said those elected from his party will not participate in Wednesday’s oath-taking ceremony, as most of them were still outside Dhaka.
“We will take oath later, after holding a meeting with party Chairman GM Quader upon the return of elected members from their areas,” he had told UNB.
The latest statement by Mahmud Alam confirms that the party’s newly-elected MPs will join the ceremony at the Jatiya Sangsad oath-taking room at 10am. The MPs-elect have been asked to be present on the parliament premises by 10am. A party meeting scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled.
Meanwhile, speaking about the formation of the opposition in Parliament, Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said GM Quader’s JaPa will get priority as the opposition if the independent candidates do not join any party.
“We will have to wait for some more time to be fully sure of the position of the independent MPs-elect,” Anisul Huq told reporters at his Secretariat office.
“To be the opposition, you have to have at least 10% of the seats in parliament”, the law minister said.
On Monday, GM Quader in his official statement had said the polls were not fair but his party accepted the outcome of the elections.
On November 29, 2023, JaPa Chief Patron and Leader of the Opposition Raushan Ershad alleged that GM Quader and General Secretary Mujibul Haque Chunnu did not cooperate with her in participating in the election. As a result, she did not participate in the elections.
