New parliament begins journey ignoring popular vote: Asif Mahmud

National Citizens Party (NCP) spokesperson and former advisor to the interim government Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan said, ‘The journey of the new parliament is showing the thumbs up to the referendum on the first day.’ He said this in a post on his verified Facebook page after the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected members of parliament of the BNP today (February 17).
In the post, Asif Mahmud wrote, ‘The journey of the new parliament has started by showing the thumbs up to the referendum on the first day. Now it is the turn of the opposition party to see the decision.’ Earlier, Asif wrote in a Facebook post that the swearing-in of the Constitutional Reform Council should be held today at the scheduled time. If you do not want to take the oath as a member of the Constitutional Reform Council because it is ‘not in the constitution’, then there is no point in taking the oath as a member of parliament.
Last Thursday, a referendum was held on the implementation of the July National Charter along with the 13th parliamentary elections. NCP leaders say that since the ‘yes’ vote won in the referendum, the responsibility of implementing the reform proposals of the July Charter will fall on the Constitution Reform Council. The members of the 13th parliament will serve as members of this council. Therefore, along with taking oath as MPs, they will also have to take oath separately as members of the Constitution Reform Council today. On the other hand, the party’s standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed does not completely agree with this issue. He told reporters on Monday that if it is included in the constitution, then an amendment is brought in that regard and that oath is taken using the Third Schedule of the constitution, who will recite that oath, it is decided, this can be possible even after so many ‘yes’ votes. In response to Salahuddin Ahmed’s statement, Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan wrote in that Facebook post, “Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed, under which constitution was the 2026 election held?”