17th amendment: Cabinet clears reserved seats for women in parliament for 25 more years

The cabinet has cleared the 17th amendment to the constitution, allowing reserved seats for women in parliament for another 25 years.

A draft of the ‘Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act 2018’ was finalised at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her offices on Monday.

The amendment was introduced as the term for reserved seats was to expire early next year, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media at a press briefing afterwards.

The seventeenth amendment will extend the term of the reserve seats for 25 years from the first session of the eleventh parliament.

According to the Article 65 (3) of the constitution 50 seats would be reserved exclusively for women in parliament for 10 years from the first meeting of parliament after the one that passed the 14th constitutional amendment in 2004.

Accordingly, the first meeting of a new parliament in 2009, which meant the seats for women will expire next year in line with the existing article.

The incumbent 10th parliament has 350 members -- 300 elected in general elections and 50 MPs from seats reserved for women.

In 2004, the government brought the 14th Amendment to the constitution to introduce the reserved seats and distribute them among the parties with proportionate representation. 

The number of reserved seats was increased from 45 to 50 through the 15th constitutional amendment in 2011, but the amendment did not extend the term of the quota.

The draft of the amendment will be sent to parliament as a bill for passage.

It will be scrutinised by the standing committee on the law, justice and parliament affairs ministry before it is brought to a vote.

A two-thirds majority is needed to amend the constitution. The ruling Awami League has 232 seats in parliament after winning the 2014 elections, which were violently boycotted by the BNP.