NCP’s Nusrat takes oath as MP

Nusrat Tabassum Jyoti, the National Citizen Party (NCP) politician newly elected as a reserved women's seat member in the 13th Parliament, has taken her oath of office.

Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram, administered the oath to her at the Speaker's office in the parliament building on Wednesday.

A media statement from the Parliament Secretariat said that the oath-taking ceremony was conducted under the chairmanship of Secretary Md Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan.

Nusrat later signed the oath book in the Parliament Secretary’s room, in line with tradition, bdnews24.com reports.

The deputy speaker, the chief whip of the opposition and senior officials of the Parliament Secretariat were present at the ceremony.

The statement also said the speaker administered the oath to the newly elected member in accordance with the Third Schedule to Article 148 of the Constitution and Rule 5 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Parliament.

On the night of May 3, the 49 other reserved women's seat members of parliament took their oaths of office. Jyoti could not take hers because the gazette in her name had not yet been published.

Later, on May 4, the Election Commission declared her elected unopposed. The gazette in her name was published on May 5. This completed the election process for the 50 reserved women's seats of the 13th Parliament.

Nusrat’s oath of office resolves the complications surrounding her seat.

Monira Sharmin, who had initially been nominated by the NCP as a reserved seat member in the Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, had her candidacy rejected because she had not completed the three-year-gap necessary after leaving a government service job.

Nusrat was then nominated in her place, but her candidacy was initially rejected as it had been submitted after the stipulated time.

Later, her nomination was accepted and re-verified based on a court order and declared valid by the returning officer on May 2.

Under the proportional representation system for women’s reserved seats, the BNP alliance got 36, the Jamaat alliance 13, and the independent alliance one.