BANGLADESH

The Parliament of Bangladesh is a unicameral legislature consisting of 300 members. They are directly elected from an equal number of territorial constituencies, which is one from each constituency, on the basis of adult franchise. Earlier there used to be 30 seats reserved for women who were elected by the directly elected Members. This provision in the Constitution for the reservation of seats for women was a transitory one. The 7th Parliament was the last Parliament to have this reservation. With the exception of the first Parliament, which had 15 reserved seats for women, and the fourth Parliament, which had no such reservation, all previous Parliaments (before 8th Parliament) of Bangladesh had included the 30 reserved seats. In the 8th Parliament the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act, 2004 was passed by the Parliament on May 2004 by which the following provision was inserted in the constitution of Bangladesh:

Art. 65(3) "Until the dissolution of Parliament occurring next after the expiration of the period of ten years beginning from the date of the first meeting of the Parliament next after the Parliament in existence at the time of the commencement of the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act. 2004, there shall be reserved forty five seats exclusively for women members and they will be elected by the aforesaid members in accordance with law on the basis of procedure of proportional representation in the Parliament through single transferable vote:".

This reservation of seats in favor of women did not disqualify them from being candidates in the general election."
The Constitution of Bangladesh in its two texts, Bengali and English, gives the unicameral legislature the name of 'Jatiyo Shangshad' in Bengali and 'House of the Nation' in English. However, the term 'House of the Nation' is rarely used. Rather the one-word nomenclature, 'Parliament', has gained currency, probably because the term 'House of the Nation' is used only once in the Constitution. Many do not know that the Constitution contemplates Parliament to be known in English as 'House of the Nation'.