On January 11, Sheikh Hasina took the oath of office as prime minister of Bangladesh for the fifth time in her career. Her Awami League party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary election held over the weekend.

The 76-year-old prime minister was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Mohammed Shahabuddin in front of foreign ambassadors, senior military and civil officials, and members of the city's elite.

The Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) unanimously elected Hasina as the Leader of the House, setting a record for the longest tenure as prime minister in Bangladesh, on the day of the oath-taking ceremony.

In the January 7 election, Hasina, the older daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation, won from the Gopalganj-3 parliamentary seat with a sizable margin. Since her first election in 1986, she has never lost from her seat in her home district.

Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana managed to escape the chaos that followed Bangabandhu's assassination on August 15, 1975, which also claimed the lives of most of his relatives. Then, they were on a German holiday. The two sisters, who were the only members of Bangabandhu's family to survive, left Germany and lived in exile in India for almost six years.

Continued to live in exile in India At the age of 34, Hasina was chosen to serve as the Awami League president. She left India on May 17, 1981, and arrived home.

Later, she spearheaded a pro-democracy campaign against HM Ershad's despotic leadership, which ultimately resulted in her overthrow in 1990. Nevertheless, the Awami League was defeated by Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the general election of 1991.

After Bangabandhu's 1975 assassination, the Awami League, led by Hasina, emerged victorious in the June 1996 legislative elections, marking their first return to power.

As required by the constitution, Hasina became the first leader to leave office peacefully in 2001 after completing her entire five-year term and transferring control to a caretaker administration. Nonetheless, a caretaker government's 2001 election saw hr party lose.