Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina takes oath as the prime minister for the fourth time

Sheikh Hasina will lead a cabinet of 24 ministers, 19 ministers of state and three state ministers. (Image: Reuters)

HIGHLIGHTS

• President Abdul Hamid administered the oath to Hasina
• Hasina won the 11th parliamentary elections with a landslide victory even as the Opposition rejected the "farcical" polls
• Thirty-one members of the new cabinet are first-timers

Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the fourth time after her Awami League's landslide victory in the recent elections that were marred by deadly violence and allegations of vote rigging. President Abdul Hamid administered the oath to Hasina on Monday (January 7) at 3 pm at the Durbar Hall of Bangabhaban.

Sheikh Hasina will lead a cabinet of 24 ministers, 19 ministers of state and three state ministers. Her cabinet mostly includes new faces. Thirty-one members of the new cabinet are first-timers.

When the tenure of this government gets over, Sheikh Hasina will receive recognition as the prime minister, who ruled the country for 20 years. Sheikh Hasina was first elected prime minister in 1996 and then again in 2008 and 2014.

On December 29, 2008, the Awami League-led grand alliance won the supreme majority in the 9th parliamentary elections and Sheikh Hasina assumed the position of prime minister on January 6, 2009.

Then on January 5, 2014, the alliance won the 10th parliamentary election and on January 12, she took oath as the prime minister for the third time.

On December 30, Hasina won the 11th parliamentary elections with a landslide victory even as the Opposition rejected the "farcical" polls marred by violence that claimed 17 lives, making it one of the deadliest polls in the country's history.

According to the information available on the website of the Prime Minister's Office, Sheikh Hasina was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) from three parliamentary constituencies in the general elections held in 1986.

Sheikh Hasina led the historic mass movements of the ’90s, and in December 1990, the autocratic dictator General Ershad was forced to resign.

In the 1991 parliamentary elections, Sheikh Hasina was elected the Leader of Opposition in the fifth parliament. She organised all the political parties including all rivals to build a parliamentary government system by changing the presidential system.

In 1996, she initiated a mass movement against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP's) non-voting elections. The movement forced Khaleda Zia to resign on March 30 of that year.

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