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RESERVED JS SEATS FOR WOMEN

Cabinet sits today to okay quota system

Staff Correspondent
The government is going to reintroduce the quota system retaining the previous provision of indirect elections to the seats reserved for women in parliament ignoring the long-held demand for a direct ballot in such seats.
A new proposal of the draft bill however has made some changes as the government planned enhancement of the number of the reserved seats to 45 or 50 from the previous 30 and proportionate distribution of seats among the
parties in the Jatiya Sangsad.
The draft bill will be placed in today's regular weekly cabinet meeting for approval.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia sat with some of her senior cabinet colleagues on Saturday for the draft of the bill.
She unveiled the plan to raise the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) seats to 450, 50 of them reserved for women, to keep pace with the rising population, at a meeting with the top four-party ruling coalition leaders on January 14.
As per the government plan, 400 lawmakers will be elected in direct votes while the reserved seats will be distributed proportionately among parties having representation in parliament. A party commanding at least eight lawmakers in parliament will have a woman legislator.
A bill providing for the reserved seats would be passed in the current parliament and elections to the enhanced general seats will be held in the next parliamentary polls scheduled for 2006.
The prime minister is keen on enhancing the number of seats for women to 50 to 60, but the ruling alliance policymakers favour keeping the number of the seats down to a maximum 45, highly placed sources said.
The plan to enhance and reintroduce the reserved seats in the JS was delayed due to disagreement over distribution of the parliamentary constituencies as the government wanted to introduce a system proportional to the parties' representation in the House.
The government finally has decided that there would be no constituency for the women's reserved seats and the law regarding women's seats will be implemented in the current parliament, the sources said.
When asked, a number of cabinet ministers said that they did not know what was proposed in the draft bill, as some last-minute changes were made in the draft.
They said some more changes may be made at today's cabinet meeting as the ministers had little time to go through the bill, the draft being sent to them yesterday afternoon.