AHMED DEEPTO

With around six weeks remaining in the 90-day legal timeframe to hold the election for the women’s reserved seats in parliament, the Election Commission has yet to fix a polling schedule.

The commission has also yet to finalise the party- or alliance-wise list of members, though it said the voter list for the election has been prepared, and work on the party-wise distribution is underway.

According to the constitution, the election for reserved seats for women has to be held within 90 days of a parliamentary election.

The 13th national election, along with the referendum, was held on February 12, with results published the next day.

Fifty parties, including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Jatiya Party, contested the polls. Of them, only nine parties won seats. The remaining 41, including the Jatiya Party, failed to secure any.

Contacted by The Daily Star on Wednesday about a tentative timeline for the women’s reserved seats election, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said the commission will hold a meeting on April 6 to set the date for the election to the reserved women’s seats in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad. “The schedule and polling date may be announced that day.”

Speaking to The Daily Star on February 24, he had said the schedule for the reserved women’s seats election would be announced during Ramadan.

He added that of the 50 seats, a party must have won at least six parliamentary seats in the general election to qualify for one reserved seat.

Fifty-four years ago, a provision was included in the constitution to reserve seats for women in parliament for greater representation of women in the legislative body. It began with 15 seats in Bangladesh’s first parliament in 1972. Since then, the number has increased several times and now stands at 50.

According to the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act, 2004, the Election Commission must complete the election within 90 days of publishing the final results in the government gazette. The law also requires the EC to issue a notification setting dates for nomination, scrutiny, withdrawal, and voting. In addition, within 30 working days of gazette publication, the commission must prepare separate lists of elected members by party or alliance.

Contacted, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said, “The voter list is ready and we’ve asked for the calculations to be completed so the file can be prepared.”

On seat distribution, he said the percentages depend

SEE PAGE 9 COL 7