The newly elected members of parliament for the reserved women’s seats in Bangladesh’s 13th National Parliament took their oath on Sunday night at the oath room on Level-1 of the East Block of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikrom administered the oath to the MPs. The Election Commission had earlier published a gazette on April 30 declaring 49 of the 50 reserved women’s seats uncontested.
According to the proportional representation system, the BNP alliance nominated 36 candidates, the Jamaat alliance 13, and one candidate came from an independent alliance. After scrutiny, 36 from BNP, 12 from Jamaat, and one independent were declared elected unopposed. The list of those sworn in includes senior BNP leaders such as Selima Rahman, Shirin Sultana, and Nipun Roy Chowdhury, among others. From Jamaat-e-Islami, Nurunnisa Siddika, Marzia Begum, and others took oath, along with three allied nominees from NCP, JAGPA, and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis.
Although the nomination of Nusrat Tabassum of the National Citizen Party (NCP) was declared valid, she did not take the oath on Sunday.