BNP Standing Committee Member Salahuddin Ahmed has said that his party favours increasing reserved seats in the parliament for women from 50 to 100.
“We are in favour of party nominations, not direct vote in the reserved seat. It is not time yet for direct vote in the reserved women’s seats,” he told reporters after emerging from a meeting with the National Consensus Commission held at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Except for some political parties, BNP and its like-minded parties supported the proposal to increase the reserved seats for women, but the election process in the reserved seats has not yet been fixed during the meeting.
“We could not reach any consensus over the election process in the reserved seats as it is a matter of elaborate discussion,” said the BNP leader.
BSS adds: Regarding constitutional reforms, he said, "BNP has asked the Constitution Reform Commission to include the issues of national security, vote of confidence, correction of the constitution, and money bills within Article 70 of the constitution."
"Besides this, voting against the party on all other issues will be allowed. If there is a war situation, then it is necessary to include a provision in Article 70 so that members of parliament can vote for it," he said, adding that BNP will give a note of dissent in this regard.
He also mentioned that BNP has not yet discussed the issue of parliamentary seats for women for the national polls.
