Five BNP lawmakers have gone to the speaker's office to tender their resignation as members of parliament, bdnews24.com reports.
They handed in the resignation letters of all seven of the BNP's representatives in parliament to Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Sunday.
The seven representatives are Md Zahidur Rahman from Thakurgaon-3, Md Mosharof Hosen from Bogura-4, Gulam Mohammad Siraj from Bogura-7, Md Aminul Islam from Chapainawabganj-2, Md Harunur Rashid from Chapainawabganj-3, Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan from Brahmanbaria-2, and Rumeen Farhana from one of the reserved seats for women.
Harunur is currently abroad, while Abdus Sattar could not join the group in parliament due to illness. Party Whip Rumeen submitted their signed resignation letters instead.
The resignation of the five MPs who hand-delivered the letters was accepted. But the other two, one of which was sent by email bearing a scanned signature, are currently under review.
Addressing the matter, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said, "We have received seven signed applications. The resignation letters of the five who submitted them in person have been accepted. Those seats have become vacant. A decision will be made on the other two applications after they are scrutinised."
The parliament secretariat will speak to Sattar in order to verify his signature before accepting his resignation. However, Harunur's emailed letter will not be accepted and he will have to submit his resignation in person later.
"The vacancy of the seats will now be gazetted and an announcement will be made at the next parliamentary session," said Shirin.
Apart from Harunur, all of the BNP's lawmakers attended the party's much-publicised antigovernment rally in Dhaka's Gopalbagh on Saturday where they took turns in announcing their resignation.
The BNP participated in the 2018 national elections under the banner of the Jatiya Oikya Front and won seven parliamentary races. But one of them was later vacated as the party's Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir refused to take his oath of office. The party was later allocated a seat from those reserved for women.
Initially, the BNP said its candidates would boycott parliament, alleging widespread election fraud. But they later changed tack and were sworn in as MPs.
Four years later, the party decided to walk away from parliament in protest at the 'illegitimate governance' of the Awami League.