Rahman

Tarique Rahman emerged Saturday as Bangladesh’s prime minister-in-waiting following his Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s commanding two-thirds parliamentary majority, with the country’s interim administration, regional neighbors, and international observers all moving to formally acknowledge a political transition that ends two decades of BNP exclusion from national power.

In his first public statement since the results were confirmed, Rahman appealed for national unity across political and ideological lines. “Our paths and opinions may differ, but in the interest of the country, we must remain united,” he told reporters at a Dhaka news conference, evoking the reconciliatory tone he had struck throughout a campaign …