Most of the lawmakers-elect of the Jatiya Party yesterday said the party should join the Awami League-led new government.

The opinion came at a joint meeting of JP presidium members and MPs-elect at the party chief's Banani office, JP Co-chairman GM Quader told reporters after the meeting.

The party's parliamentary body will decide its role in the 11th parliament.

“Our newly elected MPs will join the parliamentary party meeting tomorrow [today] after taking the oath,” Quader added.

Meanwhile, the oath-taking ceremony of MPs-elect will be held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban today, said a parliament secretariat press release yesterday. 

At 11:00am, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will administer the oath.

At the briefing, Quader said, “The parliamentary party meeting will decide what will be the Jatiya Party's role in parliament, considering the interest of the country and the grand alliance."

He added that they would talk about the issue with the alliance after the meeting.

“We are in the grand alliance and contested the election with the alliance partners with identical goals. So, we'll finalise all the decisions through discussions."

The JP co-chairman, who presided over yesterday's meeting, said they discussed the country's political situation at the joint meeting.

Party Secretary General Moshiur Rahman Ranga said they would take some organisational steps to strengthen the party.

He added that parliamentary party members would sit with the AL-led grand alliance to determine the party's role in parliament.

JP Chairman HM Ershad and Senior Co-chairman Raushan Ershad were not present at the meeting.

On Tuesday, Moshiur said they would decide yesterday whether they would remain as the opposition or part of government in the House.

OFFICIAL POLLS RESULTS

In another development, the Election Commission yesterday in its official results said the AL bagged 257 seats and the JP 22 seats in Sunday's national election.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda at a post-election press conference on Monday and EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed at the end of announcement of unofficial results of the polls said the AL won in 259 constituencies and the JP in 20.

EC officials said they made the mistake while preparing the list of all winning candidates hurriedly.

The commission yesterday published a gazette notification of all 298 winning candidates.

According to the official results of the December 30 polls, the AL-led grand alliance bagged 288 seats while the BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront got seven.

Voting was suspended at three polling stations in Brahmanbaria-2 over violence. Voting in those centres will be held on January 9.

Election in Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled for January 27 after Oikyafront candidate TIM Fazley Rabbi died on December 20.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who led her party to a landslide victory in the national election, may come up with a surprise by inducting new faces into the cabinet, likely to be formed on Sunday.

On the other hand, she may exclude some current cabinet members with “tainted images” for their "controversial roles” during the last five years in power, said party insiders.

Hasina may pick the new faces with clean images to present the country a new leadership, they said.

President Abdul Hamid will appoint members of the new cabinet on the PM's advice and administer their oath at the Bangabhaban.

According to ruling Awami League sources, some leaders who did not get party nomination for the December 30 polls may find themselves in the cabinet as a “reward”. Besides, the cabinet is likely to have three to four technocrat ministers.

The Daily Star talked with several AL leaders about the formation of the next cabinet. But the PM did not officially discuss anything about it with them, they said.

Hasina is now leading a 49-member cabinet comprising 30 ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers. Four technocrat ministers resigned last month.

The AL sealed victory in the national polls for the third consecutive time, securing a two-thirds majority. Out of the 298 seats, the AL-led alliance won in 288 and of them the ruling party itself got 259 seats.

According to AL leaders, Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, also former general secretary of the party, may be dropped from the cabinet due to his illness. Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Food Minister Qamrul Islam, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Textiles and Jute Minister Emaj Uddin Pramanik and Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan are also likely to be left out.

Besides, State Minister for Information Tarana Halim, State Minister for Health Zahid Maleque, State Minister for Social Welfare Nuruzzaman Ahmed and Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Arif Khan Joy also may not get any place in the new cabinet.

Of them, Maya and Joy didn't get party nomination for Sunday's       election.

According to sources, the MPs-elect and some leaders are lobbying the prime minister and her close aides hard to be in the cabinet.

On several occasions in the past, Finance Minister AMA Muhith had said he would retire after the polls. But on Tuesday, he said he may remain as the minister for another year if the PM wanted him to do so.

In that case, Muhith may continue to be at the helm of the finance ministry as a technocrat minister.

Telecom and ICT minister Mustafa Jabbar and Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman, who resigned from cabinet before the polls, might to be inducted in the cabinet again as technocrat ministers.

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim, LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Narayan Chandra Chanda, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan, State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam, State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder, State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid and State Minister for Environment Abdullah Al Islam Jacob are likely to continue as ministers. But there might be changes in their portfolio, party insiders said.

Besides, some new faces, including AL presidium members Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Faruq Khan and Abdur Razzak; the PM's Private Sector Affairs Adviser Salman F Rahman, AL Joint General Secretary Dipu Moni, party's Cultural Affairs Secretary Asim Kumar Ukil, Liberation War Affairs Secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, Organising Secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury and central committee member RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury also have good chances to be included in the new cabinet.

Of them, the name of Faruq Khan is being discussed as the foreign minister.

Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who won from Narail-2, is likely to be a state minister if he does not participate in the cricket World Cup starting in May. If he plays in the WC, he will get the position after the tournament.   

Besides, leaders from the AL's allies, including Jatiya Party, Jatiya Party (Manju), Workers Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), would be in Hasina's new cabinet, insiders added.

Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed today said the 11th parliamentary election held on Sunday will remain as a ‘bright example’ in national life.

“This is a huge event in the history of Bangladesh as the voting to the 11th parliamentary election took place in a very free, fair and peaceful environment under a political government,” he told reporters at the EC Secretariat here on the outcomes of the election.

He said many local and foreign observers have expressed their satisfaction over the voting.

Helal said the Awami League-led Grand Alliance gained a massive victory in this election to run the government for a straight three terms.

He also informed the media that so far the results to some 298 constituencies out of 300 have been announced since the election to three centres at Brahmanbaria-2 has been withheld. “There’ll be re-voting in these three centres.”

In Gaibandha-3 constituency polling was postponed as Dr ATM Fazle Rabbi of BNP-led 20-party alliance candidate died of old-age complications.

The EC Secretary extended gratitude to all the political parties, including Awami League, for taking part in this election amid festivity.

He said the Commission was taking preparations over the last one year to hold the election in a successful way and in this process they prepared voters list, completed delimitation of 300 constituencies, appointed the returning officers and assistant returning officers after announcement of the polls schedule, and held meetings with political parties.

Helal Uddin said about 15 lakh polling officials and members of law enforcement agencies were engaged to help hold the election in a free and fair manner with the participation of some 39 political parties and 1,846 candidates.

This election was a huge event in national life except some sporadic incidents as the EC has stopped polling at 22 centres for sporadic clashes and incidents out of the overall number of around 40,000 centres, he said quoting Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda as saying.

About the EVM use in voting, the EC Secretary said EVMs were used in six constituencies and there were curiosity, interest and anxiety over the use of these machines.

“But, we’ve been able to successfully use the EVMs…we’ll use EVMs in the upcoming elections. We will consider on how to get the results from these EVMs much earlier in the future,” he added.

Helal Uddin said the Commission is yet to calculate the overall percentage of votes casted in this election, adding their next big task will be to publish the gazette notification of the election results.

“Thus it will hand over it to the Speaker of Parliament for taking next steps and proceedings.”

The EC Secretary congratulated the Awami League for gaining the overwhelming victory side by side thanked the other political parties to cooperate with the EC for holding this election successfully.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and extended his heartfelt congratulations to her on securing her party’s absolute majority in the 11th parliamentary elections.

“The Indian premier called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at about 10:30am and congratulated her, the Awami League and the people of Bangladesh on securing her party’s absolute majority in the national elections held on Sunday,” PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told BSS.

 “The victory of the Awami League in the polls is a reflection of stunning development that Bangladesh attained under your dynamic leadership,” Modi said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee also congratulated Sheikh Hasina on her win in a Twitter post. 

The Indian prime minister assured that his country will continue to support Bangladesh’s development efforts like the past, the press secretary said.

Sheikh Hasina also greeted Narendra Modi and the people of his country. She thanked the Indian premier for making phone and said he is the first head of state or government who congratulated her after her party’s landslide victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections

Hasina is set to become Prime Minister of Bangladesh for a third term.