49 reserved seat women MPs sworn in

The newly elected members of parliament for the reserved women's seats of the 13th National Parliament took their oath of office on Sunday evening, May 3. Speaker of Parliament Hafiz Uddin Ahmed administered the oath at the oath room in the Parliament Building (East Block, Level-1) in the capital at 9:00 pm .

On April 30, the Election Commission published the gazette listing the 49 MPs elected unopposed to the reserved women's seats .

According to the gazette, the reserved women's seats were allocated based on party and alliance standings. The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its alliance secured 36 seats, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its alliance secured 12 seats, and one independent candidate was also elected .

However, National Citizen Party (NCP) leader Nusrat Tabassum could not attend the swearing-in ceremony. Although the Election Commission declared her nomination valid following a High Court order, her name was not published in the gazette due to an ongoing appeal process . The writ petition filed by NCP leader Monira Sharmin challenging the nomination of Nusrat Tabassum is still pending .

The commission earlier fixed the schedule for the election of reserved women's seats for May 12, but as all candidates were elected unopposed, no voting was required .