Reform dialogue stalls on women’s seats, upper house election systems

Political parties have yet to find common ground on two key issues in the country’s ongoing reform dialogue — the election method for 100 proposed women’s seats in parliament and the structure of elections to the planned upper house under a new bicameral system.

At a press briefing on Monday, National Consensus Commission (NCC) Vice Chair Prof Ali Riaz said talks are at an impasse over these matters. “Most parties earlier agreed to increase women’s seats to 100 and establish a bicameral legislature.

However, they remain divided on how elections should be held for these seats,” he told reporters after the 12th day of the second round of discussions at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

Given the lack of consensus, Prof Riaz said the commission would prioritise resolving these two points before moving on to other agenda items, including the issue of a caretaker government, which has been deferred for further discussion.

The commission presented a revised plan requiring political parties contesting at least 25 constituencies to nominate women for at least one-third of their total candidates. This marked a shift from the original proposal to elect 100 women directly from special constituencies rotated exclusively for female candidates.

Yet many parties remain unconvinced. BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed said his party supports raising the reserved seats to 100 but wants to keep the current indirect election system. “Under our social and cultural realities, enforcing the commission’s new proposal is extremely difficult. A time will come when women can contest directly for these seats, but we must proceed gradually,” he said.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher echoed the need for caution. Jamaat endorsed increasing the number of women’s seats but insisted elections be held through a vote-based proportional representation (PR) system. “A woman would have to campaign over an area almost triple the size of an ordinary constituency if direct elections were held. That’s unrealistic given our current societal context,” he said.

The NCC floated two ideas for forming the upper house (Senate). The first would elect 100 members nominated by political parties under a PR system, while the second would elect one representative from each of the country’s 64 districts and 12 city corporations, creating a 76-member upper house elected directly by voters.

BNP rejected both, although Jamaat and other parties including the Nationalist Consensus Party (NCP) supported the PR approach. Salahuddin clarified that while BNP proposed a bicameral system nearly two years ago, it did not advocate direct elections for the upper house. “It’s premature to say whether the upper house will be strong or weak when it hasn’t even been formed yet,” he added.

Jamaat’s Taher argued that since two-thirds of parties already back the PR model — and more parties voiced support on Monday — the commission should respect the majority view. “We strongly favour a voter-based PR system. If the commission honestly reflects the parties’ opinions, it must lean toward this option,” he said.

Jamaat also tabled new proposals on the caretaker government, suggesting a search committee comprising the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, and Chief Justice. This committee would seek nominations — five from the ruling party, five from the opposition, and two each from other parliamentary parties — to select the caretaker chief by consensus.

Prof Ali Riaz said discussions on these unresolved points will continue on Tuesday. Meanwhile, broader topics, such as the caretaker framework itself, will be revisited only after progress is made on the women’s representation and upper house electoral formats.