DHAKA, 29 November 2004 — Bangladesh’s Parliament will pass the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women’s Seats) Election Bill in its current session to add 45 women lawmakers to the existing 300.
With the induction of new women lawmakers, Parliament will have 345 MPs.
Law Minister Moudud Ahmed told newsmen in Dhaka yesterday that the bill was ready for final consideration of Parliament.
Sources in the Parliament secretariat said the current session was expected to be prorogued in the first week of December.
If the bill is passed in the current session, the election to the reserved seats for the present Parliament has to be held within 45 days of the commencement of the act — after President Iajuddin Ahmed approves the bill.
In that case, the election is likely to be held by mid-January and the first session of the Parliament in 2005 is likely to have 45 more lawmakers to be elected for the reserved seats for women.
Of those 45 seats, the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party will get 29, Jamaat-e-Islami 3, Awami League 9 and Jatiya Party 2, according to the provisions of the bill.
The bill proposes empowering the Election Commission to compute the number of the reserved seats the political parties deserve on the basis of proportional representation in Parliament.
According to the bill, the commission will compute the quota of the reserved seats for the political parties on the basis of a formula. The formula will have a “magic number” computed by dividing the 45 reserved seats by the total number of seats in the Parliament for the time being. In case of the present Parliament, the magic number will be 0.15 (45/300=0.15).
The quota of reserved seats for a party will be computed by multiplying the number by the number of seats of the party in the Parliament (0.15 X number of seats). Any fraction between .5 and .99 will be rounded upward to one and fractions less than 0.5 will be rounded down to zero.
At present, the ruling BNP has 195 seats in Parliament. According to the formula, it will get (0.15X195= 29.25) 29 reserved seats.
The Bangladesh Jatiya Party with 4 seats, Islami Oikya Jote with 3, Jatiya Party with 1, Krishak-Shramik-Janata League with 1, Bikalpadhara with 1 and 3 independent lawmakers in the current Parliament will not get any reserved seats unless they form an alliance.
The Election Commission will ask the parties and independent members in Parliament to submit a list of their party or alliance MPs within 15 days of the commencement of the act.
On the basis of the lists, the commission will compute the quota of the reserved seats and declare a date for election.
