Additional information about gender quotas

Although women play a significant role in all activities related to the electoral process , they face cultural and structural challenges in participating on equal terms. Only 7% out of the 20% share of women in parliament are directly elected.

In 2018, the reserved seats for women were prolonged for another 25 years (National Democratic Insstitute 2018). The effects of the reserved seats quota system are debated in Bangladesh, the National Democratic Institute reports in their ‘Statement of NDI’s Pre-Election Assessment Mission to Bangladesh’s 2018 Parliamentary Elections’ that they had received reports  of women on occasions being referred to the reserved seats even when they had expressed interest in running for general seats (ibid: 5-6).

The reserved seats system was first introduced in 1972 in the Constitution, originally providing 15 reserved seats for women out of the then 315 parliamentary seats during a period of 10 years. In 1978, a presidential proclamation enlarged the number of reserved seats to 30 and extended the period of reservation to 15 years from the date of promulgation of the 1972 Constitution. The constitutional provision lapsed in 1987 but was re-incorporated in the Constitution by an amendment in 1990 to be effective for 10 years from the first meeting of the legislature next elected. This provision expired in 2001, and the Parliament elected in October 2001 did not have reserved seats for women. In 2004, a Constitutional amendment was passed to reintroduce quotas for women in Parliament. The current number of seats reserved for women is 50 (Article 65).

According to Representation of the People (Amendment) Order Act 2009, ‘any political party desiring to be registered with the Commission shall have the following specific provisions in its constitution, namely: (ii) to fix the goal of reserving at least 33 per cent of all committee positions for women including the central committee and successively achieving this goal by the year 2020’. (Chapter VIA, 90B [b]).

Article 9 of the Fundamental Principles of State Policy of the Constitution of Bangladesh stipulates the representation of women in local government institutions. Bangladesh’s urban local government has two tiers: purshavas (municipal bodies) with the provision of a quota for at least three women members to be elected by commissioners of the purshava; and city corporations (Rai 2005). Rural local councils exist in three tiers: 61 zila (district) parishads, 469 upazila (subdistrict) parishads, and 4484 union and village parishads. Under a 1996 law, at least 25 per cent of seats were reserved for women in union parishads through direct election. The first election under the new provision was held in 1997, in which a total of 13 000 women candidates were elected to fill the reserved seats for women (Rai 2005).