Reserved Seats for Women in the Parliament of Bangladesh - A Critical Analysis of Meaningful Representation

Abstract

Parliament of Bangladesh is the legislative body of Bangladesh. It has 300 directly elected members and 50 members of reserved seats who are elected by the directly elected members of Parliament. Reserved seats system is one of the oldest constitutional systems of Bangladesh. The original Constitution of Bangladesh provided provisions for reserved seats and mentioned a period of reservation. Gradually, that limited time was extended. The intention of the Constitution makers’ for this system of reservation faded away. Finally, the most important amendment about this system, the 17th Amendment of the Constitution by which the tenure of reservation extended for another 25 years is described here in this paper. Parliament is the place for every citizen of Bangladesh. Members of Parliament always representing the mass people of their constituencies. Representation by the women in reserved seats is described here. Lastly, in this paper it is highlighted that the success of actual representation in the Parliament and also suggests different mechanism of election procedure by which representation in the Parliament will be more effective and sound.