Gono Forum’s Sultan Mansur takes oath

Gono Forum’s member of parliament-elect Sultan Mansur took oath as parliamentarian on Thursday.
Sultan Mansur is the first MP of the opposition coalition, Jatiya Oikya Front, to join the 11th parliament, which the coalition boycotted and has been demanding for a fresh national election.
Speaker Shirin Shamin Chowdhury administered the oath ceremony at her office at the parliament building around 11:00am in the morning.
Sultan Mansur, also a leader of the Front’s leader Kamal Hossain-led Gono Forum, was elected as MP from Moulvibazar-2 constituency with symbol of ‘paddy sheaf’, an electoral symbol of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Earlier on 13 October, the new alliance of four parties--BNP, Gono Forum, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Rob) and Nagorik Oaky-- was launched to mobilise public support in favour of the alliance's seven-point demand, including holding the 11th parliamentary polls under a non-party administration.

Another MP-elect of Gano Forum Mokabbir Khan also was scheduled to take oath today (Thursday). But a day earlier, on Wednesday, he told Prothom Alo that he won’t take oath now.

“I’m not taking oath tomorrow (Thursday). At a meeting, Gono Forum’s presidium members unanimously took the decision about not to take oath (tomorrow) Thursday. A new date will be fixed soon.’

Earlier on 3 March, the MP-elect sent a letter to the speaker requesting her to arrange the oath-taking ceremony on 7 March.