Bangladesh PM-elect Tarique Rahman, lawmakers sworn into parliament

Newly-elected Bangladesh lawmakers have been sworn into parliament on Monday, days after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) swept the first vote since the 2024 student-led uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Tarique Rahman will take the oath as prime minister later on Tuesday, as the BNP is expected to form a new government after securing more than a two-thirds majority in the elections last week.

Inside the parliament’s oath room, lawmakers pledged loyalty to Bangladesh as they were sworn in by the Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. Foreign dignitaries, including the Pakistani foreign minister and the speaker of India’s parliament, were in attendance.

The BNP won at least 212 seats in the 300-seat parliament, giving it a strong majority, while the Jamaat-e-Islami party won 77 seats. Hasina’s Awami League was banned from participating in the polls.

Rahman will take over from an interim government that led the country for 18 months after Hasina’s ousting. He will also be tasked with implementing the July National Charter, which contains 80-plus prospective reforms of Bangladesh’s governance system.

More than 60 percent of the electorate voted to pass the charter in a referendum held at the same time as the election.

The sweeping document introduces term limits, a two-chamber parliament and limits the governing party’s ability to make unilateral amendments, among other changes.