January 01, 2009	Thursday	Muharram 03, 1430

DHAKA, Dec 31: Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League said on Wednesday she was willing to share power with the disgruntled opposition after winning a massive majority in Bangladesh’s parliamentary election this week.

A senior opposition party leader did not rule out cooperation but said it would wait to see if the winning camp was sincere and refrained from the sort of harsh treatment of opposition supporters seen in the past.

Ms Wajed said she was ready to offer senior parliamentary posts to bitter political rival Begum Khaleda Zia and her party, although Ms Zia earlier rejected the results of an election that returned Bangladesh to democracy after two years’ emergency rule.

Independent monitors said the ballot was fair but Ms Zia, a former prime minister like Ms Wajed, alleged widespread fraud. That has raised fears of street protests by her supporters.

Ms Wajed met chief of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in the evening. “We discussed plans of the new government, transition of power and ratification of the actions of the interim authority in the next parliament,” she told reporters.

“Power will be transferred smoothly, and as quickly as possible,” Mr Ahmed said.

Earlier, at her first post-election news conference, a smiling and confident-sounding Ms Wajed had urged Ms Zia to accept the results, adding she wanted her government to work with all sides to establish a new political culture in Bangladesh.

“As winners, we have to deal with everything with a sense of forgiveness and accommodation instead of vengeance, to take the country forward,” said the bespectacled Wajed, 61, who wore a green-and-gold-bordered sari and arrived 50 minutes late.

“(Ms Zia) should accept the people’s verdict. I am ready to work with everyone,” she said.

Despite the lopsided margin, one monitoring group after another has said the poll appeared largely fair. One of the latest such endorsements came from the European Union Observation Mission.

Its chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, also told reporters on Wednesday the BNP “complained about irregularities in 224 polling stations while there are 45,000 (total) so the number of complaints are very insignificant”.

The Election Commission has announced the final results of Monday’s general election, confirming a landslide victory for Ms Wajed’s Awami League party.

The Awami League won 230 seats out of a possible 300, Election Commission spokesman S.M. Asaduzzaman said after the final results were in. Khaleda Zia’s BNP garnered 29 seats.—Agencies