Election-time govt can include opposition MPs in Parliament: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the next general election will be held in the country following the Westminster system of Britain.

“We follow the Westminster type democracy. We’ll hold the election as Britain does. Yes, we can show liberality (flexibility) that if anyone from among the MPs (parties) in Parliament expresses desire to join the election-time government, we are ready to take them,” she said.

By saying so she meant the MPs from the parliamentary opposition. All the seven MPs from opposition BNP quit the legislature in December last year as part of the party’s anti-government movement.

“Now they (BNP) are not in Parliament. So, there is nothing to think about them,” she said.

The premier made this remark replying to a question regarding the election-time government at a press conference arranged at her official residence Ganabhaban on the outcome of her recent three-nation visit to Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom from April 25 to May 08, 2023.

Hasina said her government had shown such liberality earlier before the 2014 national election and asked BNP leader Khaleda Zia to give her party’s representation in that election-time government, but she didn’t do so.

“Now they (BNP) are not in Parliament. So, there is nothing to think about them,” she said.