Businesswomen favoured while picking reserved seat MPs: Shujan

Women involved in business dominated the seats reserved for women in the 12th National Elections, said Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan). The organisation also alleged that there was discrimination in district-wise candidate nominations.

The organisation made the statement today (28 March) during a press conference organised virtually to present a report titled "Data Analysis of the elected MPs of reserved seats of 12th National Parliament."

The report cites data from Election Commission's affidavits as stating - 13 (26%) of the 50 MPs elected to reserved women's seats are involved in business. And 7 (14%) are office workers, 5 (10%) are teachers, 5 (10%) are housewives, 2 (4%) are lawyers, 2 (4%) are agriculturists, 8 (16%) mentioned their profession as "politics", while 8 people (16%) are associated with other professions.

Among the MPs associated with the legal profession, Ummi Farzana Chattar and Sanjida Khanam were both elected from Bangladesh Awami League.

Sujan highlighted that 22.92% of members of parliament elected for reserved seats for women from Awami League and 100% of those elected from Jatiya Party come from business backgrounds. 

The report also stated that at least 34 women members of parliaments in reserved seats have more than Tk1 crore in assets.

Out of 50 members of parliament, 14 own assets of more than Tk5 crores. Among the 48 people elected from Awami League, 13 own assets of more than Tk5 crores and 1 among those elected from Jatiya Party own more than Tk5 crore.

According to the report, three members of parliament with the highest wealth are Jatiya Party's Salma Islam who has assets of over Tk105 crore and Bangladesh Awami League's Runu Reza with Tk24.22 crore in assets and Nahid Izahar Khan with Tk14.79 crore.

Among the newly elected women parliamentarians, 10 own less than Tk25 lakh -- 9 of them elected from Awami League and 1 from Jatiya Party.

The research report suggests reforms to the reserved women MP candidate nomination system, advocating against tokenism and emphasising merit-based nominations. 

Sujan also called attention to a past promise by Awami League to increase the number of reserved seats to 100 and to conduct elections through direct votes, which remains unfulfilled.