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Fifty years ago BD one-party rule

2025-01-26
DACCA: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became President of the Republic of Bangladesh today [Jan 25] after Parliament, by a sweeping majority, replaced the country`s Constitution by a one-party presidential form of government. Sheikh Mujib, 54, in a valedictory speech to Parliament as Premier, described the constitutional change as a second revolution. ... He said he had experimented for the last three years with a Constitution that gave some people unbridled liberty. He also described the threeyear-old Constitution as a legacy of colonial rule which cannot run a country having an individual identity and inspiration.

After being sworn in at a brief ceremony in Parliament Sheikh Mujib said in a voice shaking with emotion, `an international clique is making Bangladesh a playground`.

He warned `those who are in the pay of foreign powers`. . .. The Constitution announced today says that no citizen of Bangladesh would have the right to become a member of any other political party except the planned national party, and all MPs should become members of it. The new constitution also provides that a parliamentarian will lose his seat if he does not join the national party.

News agencies