Bangladesh Parliament set to allow 33 per cent quota for women

by Sanjay Jha | February 16, 2009 at 03:39 am
168 views | 12 Recommendations | 2 comments

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The newly elected Bangladeshi government led by a women has decided to reserve 30% of seats to women in the lower house.

Even as political parties in India still drag their feet over reserving 33 percent of seats to women in Lok Sabha, the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh is going ahead with its plan to amend the Constitution to more than double the share of seats for women.

"The number of reserved seats for women in Parliament will be increased to 33 percent from current 15," Local Government and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday.

The government has decided to amend its law wherein the women parliamentarians are chosen by the members elected to the house through direct polls.

"We shall amend the Constitution to allow women to come to the house through direct election from the next parliamentary polls," Ashraful was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Star'.

In the existing Westminster-style parliamentary system, 45 seats are reserved for women lawmakers in the 300-member National Assembly.
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Paschen

That is impressive for Bangladesh.

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Roy C

I am not saying that this doesn't help women. I don't like quotas. It is not democratic. The people need to vote for whomever they want, and not be constrained to guarantee 33% to women or limit representation to 33 % for women.

Quotas are social engineering and authoritarian.

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Paschen
First Flagged at 8:09 AM, Feb 16, 2009 by Paschen
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