DHAKA (Bangladesh) - NEWLY elected parliament members from a winning 15-party alliance, led by former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party, were sworn in on Saturday.

Ms Hasina's alliance overwhelmingly won the Dec 29 elections, which were held to restore democracy after nearly two years of emergency rule by a military-backed interim government.

An opposition alliance led by Hasina's rival, ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, said the vote 'rigged,' but she has not rejected the results altogether. The Election Commission called it a free and fair election, but said it would investigate Zia's allegations.

The lawmakers who took the oath of office on Saturday included 230 members from Hasina's Awami League, 27 from ex-military dictator Hussein Mohammad Ershad's Jatiya Party and five others from smaller ones.

Another 37 opposition members, including 32 from a four-party alliance led by Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were scheduled to take the oath Sunday.

Ms Hasina, who was prime minister from 1996-2001, is expected to name a new Cabinet next week.

The election was the country's first in seven years and its most peaceful in decades. Elections scheduled for January 2007 were cancelled following violent opposition street protests. -- AP