Salim Reza, Dhaka: It is not clear when the next parliamentary elections will be held in the changing Bangladesh. The interim government of Bangladesh has recently announced that the national parliament elections will be held in Bangladesh by June 30 next year. Already there is a discussion in the politics of Bangladesh to change the election system. Various political parties like Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan, CPB, Mass Solidarity Andolan, AB Party, Mass Rights Council are supporting it. On the other hand, BNP, one of the main political parties of Bangladesh, has been opposed to it since the beginning.
In the position of the political parties in favor of proportional election, many people are comparing different equations of votes. There is discussion that if elections are held in the new system, which political party will benefit and which party will suffer. In the current elections in Bangladesh, there are candidates of political parties in 300 seats. They are directly elected by the voters.
But by changing this system now it is suggested to introduce proportional election system. Where a political party in all of Bangladesh will get the number of votes, the proportional rate will determine how many seats that party will get in the parliament.
That is, no candidate will be elected directly by public vote. If a party gets 40 percent of the votes, it will have 40 out of 100 seats in the parliament. But what is the debate between the political parties of Bangladesh about this proportional election?
The two major political parties, BNP and Awami League, have benefited from this in the past parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. As the seats are apportioned on the basis of wins and losses in the elections, the winning party gets the majority of seats in the Parliament. But in many constituencies, the difference between the winner and the loser is very small. Analyzing the results of the four national parliamentary elections since the introduction of the parliamentary system in Bangladesh in the 1990s to 2008, it has been found that the main two major political parties won more seats than their vote share. It happened more in the home of the winning team.
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Recently, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami officially presented the proposal of proportional elections. On behalf of the party, while highlighting the various contours of the state reform, the proposal of proportional system election was presented by reforming the electoral system. There is talk in political circles that if Jamaat’s alliance with Islamist political parties takes shape, it will give this new alliance an advantage not only in politics but also in the electoral field. There are some political parties in Bangladesh whose votes are not much across Bangladesh. But many of them have won one or more seats in the past because of their popularity in a particular seat. But there is also a fear of losing these political parties if they do not get the minimum number of votes in proportional voting.
However, the main political party of Bangladesh, BNP, is against proportional elections, even if the smaller political parties want it. BNP has won the national parliament elections three times before in Bangladesh. The assessment is being made within the party, if there is a fair election, they will win and come to power. In the reality of Bangladesh, BNP has organizational structure, support and votes all over Bangladesh. Awami League has a big vote bank in Bangladesh. This vote bank will benefit the Awami League in proportional elections – many people think so, but whether the party will be able to participate in the elections at all is a big question.
All in all, there are many opinions for and against proportional elections. As wide consensus has not been formed among all the political parties of Bangladesh on this, the voter’s attitude has not been verified. Again, it is not clear whether an interim government will be interested in introducing a new election system or not.
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