Awami hopeful of forming govt with Jatiya support<\/p>\n
By Nadeem Qadir<\/p>\n
DHAKA (AFP): Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the daughter of Bangladesh's
\nfounding leader, is set to become the nation's second female
\nprime minister, following the confirmation that the Jatiya Party
\n(JP) will throw its weight behind her.<\/p>\n
Party sources Monday said Wajed's Awami League was now
\nconfident of forming Bangladesh's next government after the JP of
\njailed former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad reaffirmed its
\nsupport Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\"Yes, of course, we have lent support to (the) Awami League,\"
\nJP secretary-general Anwar Hossain told reporters late Sunday.<\/p>\n
He added: \"Those who expressed different views did that in
\ntheir personal capacity, (and) it is sure that those views in no
\nway can undo the statement issued by myself and party acting
\nchief Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury\" on Saturday.<\/p>\n
His comments, which ended a day of confusion over the party's
\nrole when it emerged as the power broker after the June 12
\ngeneral elections, followed 90-minute talks with Awami League
\nchief and prime minister-apparent Wajed.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Wajed's father, led Bangladesh to
\nindependence from Pakistan in 1971. He was killed and his post-
\nindependence government toppled during a 1975 bloody military
\ncoup.<\/p>\n
Ershad's brother, G.M. Kader, also elected on a Jatiya ticket,
\nwas at the talks along with other senior leaders.<\/p>\n
The JP leader's wife, Raushan, met Ershad at prison Sunday
\nnight and later told the Janaknatha newspaper: \"I have no
\nobjection to the statement issued, but it would have been better
\nto have arrived at such a decision in a party meeting.\"<\/p>\n
Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh with an iron fist for nearly nine
\nyears, is serving a 13-year prison term for graft. He won five
\nseats, the maximum permitted for each candidate, in the June 12
\nelections.<\/p>\n
In a handwritten letter, published in the Banglabazar Patrika
\nnewspaper, Ershad said he was authorizing Hossain and his brother
\nto negotiate the support for the Awami League.<\/p>\n
It was still unclear what the conditions were, but apparently
\nErshad's release was a key consideration.<\/p>\n
However, a League spokesman told AFP that Wajed maintained her
\ngovernment would allow \"the laws of the land to take its own
\ncourse\" in the case.<\/p>\n
A presidential palace source said diplomats and politicians
\nfrom leading parties had held talks with President Abdur Rahman
\nBiswas over the past few days. \"We have no fascination for any
\nparty, but we would like to see the constitutional process
\nfollowed,\" he quoted the diplomats as telling Biswas.<\/p>\n
The source added that Biswas, a member of former prime
\nminister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP),
\nmaintained that he would follow the constitution and call upon
\nthe majority party to form the new government.<\/p>\n
\"Most likely, if all goes well, the new government will take
\nthe oath of office around June 24,\" he said, referring to the end
\nof the election process after repolling on Wednesday in 27
\nconstituencies.<\/p>\n
Newspapers reported the BNP was still trying to woo the JP,
\nbut political commentators said it was unlikely that Ershad would
\nreverse his stand, as he held the BNP responsible for his
\njailing.<\/p>\n
The Awami League now leads a bloc of 167 seats in the 300-seat
\nparliament -- 134 of its own, plus the support of one independent
\nMP, the JP's 29 seats and two seats held by two smaller ally
\nparties.<\/p>\n
A total 151 out of 300 parliamentary seats is needed for an
\nabsolute majority.<\/p>\n
Zia's BNP holds 104 seats.<\/p>\n
MPs will select another 30 seats reserved for women when
\nparliament convenes.<\/p>\n
The election commission has gazetted 273 results, despite the
\nBNP's demand that results be withheld until their complaints
\nregarding irregularities in 111 constituencies were investigated.<\/p>",
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