• Grand alliance lawmakers take oath • AL president picked as parliamentary party leader • she warns MPs against bad report • Zillur Rahman AL's choice for presidency

January 4, 2009

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and Zillur Rahman head for the Parliament Secretariat office after taking oath as lawmakers in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban yesterday.

December 30, 2008

The Awami League-led grand alliance has swept back to power after seven years out of office with a stunning landslide victory in an environment of free and fair elections that clearly showed the people's verdict for a change and has consigned the BNP-led four-party alliance to the political wilderness.

The grand alliance has clinched two-thirds majority with 261 seats compared to the BNP-led four-party alliance's 30, down from 217 in 2001.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNP's key ally in the four-party alliance, has seen its once-proud seat tally plummet from 17 in 2001 to a humiliating two, in what appears to be a wholesale rejection of the party by the voters.

The Election Commission Secretariat has so far announced unofficial results of 295 constituencies. The official results will be published as a gazette.

Sheikh Hasina on political culture

December 28, 2008

Sheikh Hasina last night made a fervent call for all political parties to do away with politics of confrontation and develop a healthy political culture for building a prosperous country.
"Ahead of the parliamentary election, I call upon all political parties believing in democratic values to put an end to politics of conflict and vengeance in the greater interest of the nation," the Awami League (AL) president said in an address to the nation over Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar.