EC drafts bill excluding provision to keep 33% women in political parties

The Election Commission (EC) has drafted a bill recommending the exclusion of the provision that states every political party must have women as 33% of its representatives.

The commission, with the draft bill, excluded the part from “Registration of Political Parties with the commission” chapter of The Representation of the People Order, 1972.

According to RPO, which was amended in 2008, there is an obligation for all political parties to ensure 33% or one third of women representatives in all sectors, including the central committees, by 2020.

However, all registered parties—including Awami League and BNP—are yet to fulfil this condition.

EC officials said the commission made the move to enact a separate law which will be titled as Registration of Political Parties, 2020.

The draft law was made public on Tuesday, and political parties can share their opinions on the draft of the law by July 7, EC officials said.

Stakeholders and political parties can email their opinion to [email protected] on the draft law, which is now available on EC website.

The draft law, for registration of new parties, however asked new applicants to keep a provision mandatory in their party constitution to have a target of keeping 33% women membership in all the committees, including the central committee. 

The parties have to include a statement on how much the target has been fulfilled while submitting an annual report to the commission.

But this does not make it mandatory and does not set any timeframe for new parties to be registered.