New cabinet to take oath within 3-4 days: Cabinet secretary
The new cabinet may take oath within the next three to four days. The cabinet division has taken preparations in this regard. According to the constitution, the president will administer the oath at Bangabhaban.
Cabinet secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid said this today on Saturday in response to questions from journalists at the Secretariat.
By securing more than two-thirds of the seats in the 13th National Parliament election, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party is going to form the government. Through the election held last Thursday, the party is forming the government after two decades.
Through winning the majority of seats, BNP chairman Tarique Rahman will become the country’s next prime minister. The party had announced this earlier.
Among the 297 seats whose results have been declared, BNP has won 209. Its candidates are also ahead in the two seats where results remain suspended. Their allies have won three seats. That means BNP and its allies have secured 212 seats.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has won 68 seats. Other allies of the Jamaat-led 11-party electoral alliance have secured nine seats. That means Jamaat and its allies have obtained 77 seats. The Election Commission has already published the gazette of the elected members of parliament.
Discussions are now ongoing about when the elected members of parliament and the new cabinet will take oath and who will be in the new cabinet. The cabinet division arranges the cabinet oath ceremony, though it is held at Bangabhaban and administered by the president.
Regarding the oath of the new cabinet, cabinet secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid mentioned the oath of the elected members of parliament, election of the leader of the house and related processes, and said that afterwards a convenient time is fixed for the oath. He added, “We hope the oath taking ceremony will be held within the next three days or at most four days.”
He also said the cabinet division is prepared even if asked to hold it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. After the members of parliament take oath, it will be known when the cabinet oath will be held.
Preparations are in place to invite around one thousand guests to the oath ceremony, he added.