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OPINION

Reserved seats in Parliament: An alternative thought

Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed
Reserved seats for women in the Bangladesh Parliament is a much talked about issue atthe moment, because government has approved in principle the 14th amendment to the Constitution reviving the provision of indirect elections to the seats reserved for women in Parliament. The highlights of the proposed bill are: number of reserved seat would be 45; those seats will not bare any constituency; they will be elected by the generally elected MPs; those seats will be proportionately distributed among the parties in the house.
This is the fourth amendment of the provision of reserved seats in the Bangladesh Parliament. The first initiative was taken in the 1972 Constitution with 15 reserved seats for women for a period of 10 years. The second initiative was taken to increase the number from 15 to 30 and to extend the tenure from 10 years to 15 years. The third initiative was taken in 1990 with no changes in quality but an extension of tenure for the next 10 years. In reality these initiatives for empowering women were not accepted by the prominent women leaders or political thinkers. They repeatedly demanded direct
elections based on adult franchise. This has been the unique and principal demand over the last few years.
Sometimes the number of seats for women is a bargaining point. In the last seventh parliament it was 30. Now government has proposed 45. Some demand 50, while others ask for 64. Even if these two demands can be bridged, it may not lead to the real solution.
The thinking of women leaders and political thinkers I do not know. At least I think if the government decides to increase the reserved seats to 64 and provide a provision for direct elections for those seats, it will not be a fruitful solution or a means to empower women. By this process the elected MPs will not get any power to exercise. There is no scope to generate power for them in the existing situation.
The government has already introduced an option for "District In-charge Minister". S/he is bearing coordination and other responsibilities to exercise in the boundary of the district. If the number of reserved seats is increased to 64 and a provision for direct election is made, what will be their position? Will all women MPs with reserved seats be a "District In-charge Minister", or have an equivalent position? I believe this is
not possible or realistic because the first opponent will be the other MPs. They may not recognise the women MPs as their supervisor or coordinator.
Then what will be the status of the directly-elected reserved seat MPs, the women of Parliament? I think they will be as inactive as they are now. It will just increase the political crisis. So, what is the ultimate solution? I consider the following proposal may lead to an ultimate solution for the reserved seats in the Bangladesh Parliament.
Alternative thinking
At present we have 300 general seats (general in this sense that those seats are not reserved). There are arguments on both sides. I will not debate the total number of seats at this moment, but I would like to add a concluding paragraph to this topic. We shall continue with the notion that we have 300 seats.
I want to propose that every political party competeting in the election of the Bangladesh National Parliament nominate 10 percent (or the percentage may be determined by those concerned) of their total seats for the women. I have to ignore the number of total seats since it will fluctuate, and for the viability of the amendment. If any fraction in number comes then
automatically the next full figure would be the number of reserved seats. If the total number of MPs is 392 then the number of reserved seats would not be 39, but40. If they fail to nominate 10 percent female MP candidates then the candidature of the respective party would be canceled automatically by the office of Election Commission.
Let us take an example for more clarification. W, X, Y, Z are four parties competeting in the Bangladesh National Parliament election. The respective parties (W, X, Y, Z) have given their nomination for 300, 250, 200 and 150 seats, respectively. The total number of seats of Bangladesh National Parliament has been calculated here as 300. The respective parties will have to nominate women in the following numbers, respectively: W - 3 0 Seats, X-25 Seats, Y-20 Seats, Z-15 Seats.
If a party fails to nominate this number of women candidates, then the Election Commission will cancel the MP candidature of the respective party. Must be wondering how this would be possible in Bangladesh. But this is the proper time for doing such a significant job for our women. The ruling BNP has an opportunity to initiate this proposal, because this is
a period of congenial relations with religious Jamat-E-lslami Bangladesh and Islami Oikayajot (2 fractions). These parties are now in the machinery of government with the BNP.
It is my belief if BNP proposes this type of amendment no opposition will be faced and coalition partners Jamat-E-lslami Bangladesh, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), Islami Oikayajot (2 fractions), can also get seats with the main opposition Bangladesh Awami League along with Jatiya Party (Ershad), Krisak Sramic Janata League, Jatiya Party (Monju), and others. I believe that if the BNP can negotiate successfully with the main oppositions Bangladesh Awami League and Jatiya Party (Ershad), then other parties will automatically come to a consensus. It is high time for BNP to utilise association with Bangladesh Jamat-E-lslami and Islami Oikayajot, which supposedly have a negative attitude towards empowerment of women. This is the ultimate solution for empowering women through reserved seats in the Bangladesh National Parliament.
Importantly, this proposal will not hamper the present nomination system of political parties for women. Such as, at present BNP is nominating Khurshid Jahan Hoque
and Awami League is nominating Motia Chowdhury and possibly others. The alternative proposal is to relax the system of reserved seats so that it may be 10 percent with or without those seats. Any party can nominate greater than or equal to 10 percent, but not less then Wpercent of seats for women.
In this process we hope that, we will get more than 30 women parliamentarians who will be as empowered as their male counterparts. Sometimes the number may fall, but it will really create power and scope for practice of politics for women, and this may give us hope for the future of Bangladesh.
At last I want to say that the total number of seats in Parliament may be equal to one-tenth of the total number of Union Parishads (UPs) in the country. At present it is 4,488, so the seats of Parliament may be 449 atthe maximum. However, this must be decided following a thorough debate.
Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed is an M.Phil Researcher, Department of Public Administration, University of Chittagong.