DHAKA, 29 October — Bangladesh’s new parliament convened yesterday for its first session, but opposition lawmakers boycotted it saying the election that brought Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s four-party alliance to power had been rigged.
The 300-seat parliament unanimously elected Jamiruddin Sircar, a lawmaker from Zia’s Bangladesh National Party, as the new house speaker in its first day of business.
The outgoing speaker, Abdul Hamid of opposition Awami League, opened the new session and left the house after his successor was elected.
Lawmakers from former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League were to stage a protest rally later Sunday to demand that the election results be overturned.
Prime Minister Zia appealed to opposition lawmakers to attend parliament.
“We had hoped that all those who got the people’s mandate would come here and exercise the responsibility bestowed on them,” Zia said in her address.
President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, who led inauguration ceremonies in the new parliament, said that the new government would respect all international and bilateral treaties and agreements, already signed.
“If required in national interest, amendments will be made to these agreements through mutual consultation,” said the outgoing leader, who was chosen to head the caretaker government created when Hasina stepped down several months ago to give way to a special elections.
The Oct. 1 parliamentary elections were Bangladesh’s third since democracy was restored in 1991 after 16 years of military rule.
The polls, which were certified as “free and fair” by international observers, gave Zia’s alliance a two-third majority in parliament.
