PM-elect Sheikh Hasina sworn in as MP

Bangladesh's prime minister-elect Sheikh Hasina Wajed was sworn in as a member of parliament on Saturday after winning a landslide election victory last week.

Bangladesh's prime minister-elect Sheikh Hasina Wajed was sworn in as a member of parliament on Saturday after winning a landslide election victory last week.

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She was expected to be elected leader of the house later on Saturday, before being sworn in as prime minister by President Iajuddin Ahmed on Tuesday.

Members of opposition parties who make up the remaining seats in parliament were due to be sworn in on Sunday.

Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party won a landslide victory in Monday's polls, winning 230 out of a possible 300 seats.

She has led the party since 1981 and this will be her 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.

Her party earlier on Saturday brushed aside speculation that the party would appoint a fresh face as prime minister.

"Sheikh Hasina will be the next prime minister of the country. The party does not have any other alternative," party general secretary Abdul Jalil said.

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.