Bangladesh’s advancement can’t be stopped now: PM Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA: The advancement of Bangladesh is now unstoppable with the reelection of Awami League to power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday, and pledged to build a 'Smart Bangladesh' by 2041 as outlined in the party’s election manifesto.

In her first speech, three days after her party won the general election that made her the premier for the fourth consecutive term, at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan, Hasina said that the vision and mission of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were her guidelines in leading the country.

“I am grateful. None can now prevent Bangladesh’s advancement,” she said In an emotionally choked voice, the 76-year-old leader called the people of Bangladesh as her family members and remembered the August 15, 1975 carnage when a military coup killed her father and Bangladesh’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members.

Hasina said she was extra thankful to the voters as they turned up in huge numbers defying the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) violent boycott campaign through clandestine arson attacks on passenger trains and transport blockades and voted her party to power for the fourth straight term.

In line with the constitutional provision, Hasina was expected to meet later on Wednesday President Mohammad Shahabuddin to seek his approval to form her new government after the 12th general elections, when she would be the premier for the fifth time and record straight fourth time consecutively.

Soon after the Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) elected her as the Leader of the House, Hasina told them: “Your highest priority must be the welfare of the people”.

“You (MPs) will have to ensure balanced development in your respective constituencies,” she said.

The ALPP also reelected incumbent parliamentary speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and senior Awami League leader and former minister Begum Matia Chowdhury as the deputy leader of the House.

Bangladesh’s new cabinet is expected to take oath on Thursday with President Shahabuddin to administer the ministers’ oath of office at Bangabhaban presidential palace.

Hasina, ruling the South Asian nation since 2009, secured a fifth overall term in the one-sided election in which she secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term on Sunday.

Hasina's Awami League won 223 seats in the 300-member Parliament in the general elections that were held on Sunday.

With this win, Hasina is poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh since it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971.