7 opposition lawmakers resign, demand parliament's dissolution, fresh poll in Bangladesh

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Seven lawmakers of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) submitted their resignations to the parliament speaker on Sunday, demanding fresh elections under a neutral government and dissolution of the existing parliament.

“We tendered our resignations to the speaker in line with the party’s decision. It is a no-confidence against the government,” BNP's international affairs secretary, Rumeen Farhana, told reporters outside the parliament.

Out of the seven, five lawmakers were present during the event as one of their lawmakers was sick while another was staying abroad. On behalf of the two, Farhana submitted their resignations.

Talking to reporters, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said five out of seven BNP seats have been declared vacant following the resignations. The other two applications will be scrutinized and decided soon, she added.

According to the existing law, elections for the vacant seats will be held within 90 days.

The by-elections will be held after a gazette notification is issued by the parliament on the resignations, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir told reporters in Dhaka.

In 2018, BNP won seven out of the total 350 seats in the country’s 11th parliament, which has 50 reserved seats for women.

The opposition BNP announced resignations and presented a 10-point demand during a grand rally held in the capital Dhaka’s Golapbagh on Saturday.

“The first of the 10 demands is the dissolution of parliament and holding of fair poll under a neutral caretaker government. The resignations are part of our solidarity with the party's 10-point demand,” Farhana continued.

Immediately after the opposition’s announcement, the ruling Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Saturday said at a rally in the Savar area of Dhaka that “it would not affect the parliament if the opposition lawmakers resign.”

He, however, said: “BNP will have to regret making such a decision.”

“In the last four years, there were only seven of us as an opposition party and the rest from other parties are ‘pet opposition’ in the parliament. So, from today there are no people to represent the opposition in the parliament […]. I think, the parliament is now completely illegal,” Gulam Mohammad Siraj, one of the seven MPs, told reporters.

Earlier, on Saturday tens of thousands of Bangladeshis from across the country gathered in the capital Dhaka to support the main opposition political party's demand that the present government should quit and elections should be held under an apolitical interim framework.

They also demanded the release of Khaleda Zia, the 76-year-old party head and three-time prime minister, who has been imprisoned for 17 years in two graft cases since 2018.