Political parties agreed to form a bicameral parliament having a total of 500 parliamentary seats including 100 seats for women, 100 seats in the upper house and 300 elected seats on Thursday day of the National Consensus Commission (NCC) meeting.
However, BNP did not agree with the proposal that a person cannot be prime minister for more than two terms.
The meeting took place at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka. 30 political parties took part on the third day of the second phase of talks. The topics discussed included Article 70, Parliamentary Standing Committees, Women's seats, Appointment of the Chief Justice. The discussions will continue till next Sunday.
A three-member team from BNP also joined the meeting. The members were Salahuddin Ahmed, BNP Standing Committee Member, Ismail Zabiullah, Adviser to the BNP Chairperson, Prof Dr Borhan Uddin Khan of University of Dhaka.
Salahuddin also said, "We need to strengthen constitutional institutions to stop any one person from becoming too powerful. Then we won't need a special body like the NCC."
He said that since Article 70 is open for discussion, MPs should have the freedom to vote independently. A secret ballot could also be used during presidential election.
The BNP supports the idea of a bicameral parliament, but does not agree with using the proportional representation (PR) system to elect members of the upper house.
Salahuddin Ahmed said, "I think it would not be right for us to consider the PR system for the upper house now."
Salahuddin said, "Our party gave the idea of a bicameral parliament so that prominent citizens of the country academicians, athletes, sociologists, political scientists, and others who have contributed to different sectors can be included as representatives. We did not suggest direct voting for the upper house. Overall, we think the PR system is not right in this case."
He explained that using PR in Bangladesh would mean the majority party might not get two-thirds of the seats in the upper house. This could create problems in passing laws or changing the constitution.
"For this reason, BNP supports electing members of the upper house using the current method used for women's reserved seats, which is representation based on the number of seats," Salahuddin said.
The BNP also supports using secret ballots by members of parliament in the presidential election. Salahuddin said that different political parties have shared various views on how to elect the president. The most common opinion is that both the upper and lower houses should elect the president using secret ballots, although there is no final decision yet.
Salahuddin said, "BNP agrees with secret balloting if all parties support it."
BNP does not agree with the proposal that a person cannot be prime minister more than twice. Instead, BNP has proposed that someone can become prime minister again after serving two terms, if they take one year break before returning to the position.
Several important commission leaders were present, including Dr Ali Riaz, Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Abdul Mueed Chowdhury, Head of the Public Administration Reform Commission, Safar Raj Hossain, Head of the Police Reform Commission, Badiul Alam Majumder, Head of the Election Reform Commission, Justice Emdadul Haque, Head of the Judicial Reform Commission, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Reform Commission.
