Speculation grips Bangladesh over parliamentary opposition after one-sided election

DHAKA: Speculation gripped Bangladesh on Wednesday about the formation of the parliamentary opposition party after the re-election of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina whose Awami League bagged 223 seats in the 300-member Parliament while its rival Jatiya Party failed to get the required 10 per cent seats to become the main opposition.

Jatiya Party won only in 11 constituencies while the law stipulates at least 30 seats are required to form the main opposition in the house.

Several independent candidates, who individually got 62 seats outnumbering the Jatiya Party, said they were working to form a parliamentary "platform" or "alliance".

Most of the independent lawmakers were actually "rebel" Awami League candidates who were encouraged by the ruling party to contest the polls to make it participatory as major opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia boycotted the January 7 elections.

Law minister Anisul Huq said the formation of the parliamentary opposition "depends on independent MPs move” since the Jatiya Party did not get the required number of seats to be the main opposition.

"They (independent MPs) have said they will form a platform. Let us see what they do,” Huq told PTI.

Legal experts, however, said that the Jatiya Party could emerge as the main parliamentary opposition only if it could rally support of 19 independents.

"Whatever we do, we will abide by our leader Sheikh Hasina’s instructions,” said independent lawmaker Pankaj Debnath, a ‘rebel’ Awami Leaguer who defeated the party nominee in the election.

A fellow ‘rebel’ independent MP Sayedul Haque Sumon supplemented Debnath saying, “We were encouraged by our leader to contest in the polls against Awami League candidates but we belong to Awami League”.

Legal experts said the independent MPs could never emerge as a political party after the general election under the Representation of Peoples Order (RPO) as a political party must secure the Election Commission registration for contesting the polls.

The Awami League-led 14-party alliance partners Workers Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASOD) got one seat each while one went to the Kalyan Party.

The US and UN have voiced concern over violence and reports of irregularities on the day of elections, with Washington noting that the polls were not free or fair and regretted that not all parties participated in the ballot.

The Bangladesh government had invited a large number of foreign observers from India and other countries, as well as multilateral organisations, to observe the elections