Sheikh Hasina to be named next Bangladesh PM

DHAKA, (AFP)

Bangladesh's Awami League confirmed Saturday that it would nominate leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed as prime minister after she led the party to a landslide election victory last week.

Party general secretary Abdul Jalil brushed aside speculation that Sheikh Hasina, who has led the party since 1981, would step aside and appoint a fresh face to the premiership.

"Sheikh Hasina will be the next prime minister of the country. The party does not have any other alternative," he said.She is expected to be sworn in on Tuesday.

It will be Sheikh Hasina's second term as prime minister. She held the post after her party's narrow 1996 poll win over the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of arch rival Khaleda Zia.

Sheikh Hasina, now 61, lost to Zia in 2001, but crushed her in Monday's election, winning 230 out of a possible 300 seats.

The BNP won just 29.Held under tight security, the first polls since 2001 attracted a turnout of 87 percent and saw none of the deadly unrest that forced the last scheduled vote to be cancelled and the army-backed administration take control.

After alleging election fraud in the immediate wake of the results, the BNP on Thursday accepted defeat, but stood by its charge of vote rigging.

Independent observers, including a team from the European Union, have declared the election free and fair.

The Awami League said it would appoint veteran party official and ex-minister Zillur Rahman to be Bangladesh's next president, once parliament is convened.

The head of state has had little authority over day-to-day affairs since a change in the constitution in 1991 vested most powers in the prime minister.