Propositions on Constitutional Reform

Dacca Institute of Research & Analytics (daira)

 

Why Second Republic

  1. Realizing that the post-liberation Bangladesh governance system, including the constitution, has failed to live up to the people’s aspirations.
  2. The July Uprising emerged as a critical juncture, presenting the country with the option to choose a new pathway.
  3. This new pathway aims at creating a new political equilibrium that transfers power back to the people from an all-powerful state.
  4. It reflects the right of the people to challenge, alter, or abolish a political structure when it fails to recognize and respect their inviolable rights.
  5. It is not a rejection of the country’s past achievements or its glorious struggle for self-determination, but rather a reconsideration of history and its failures, marking a new beginning.

 

Preamble

We, the people of Bangladesh, recalling the Historic Liberation War of 1971, the movement against dictatorship in 1990, and embracing the spirit [to end discrimination in all forms] of the July Revolution are building the foundation of a second republic that envisions an inclusive political community where people are empowered to live a life with Dignity, Social Justice and Harmony, and protected from any ideology, process and structure that facilitates Fascism. Pledging to form a state that guarantees its citizens to reach their potential to the highest extent possible, we do hereby ordain and adopt this constitution for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

আমরা, বাংলাদেশের জনগণ, ১৯৭১ সালের ঐতিহাসিক মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, ১৯৯০ সালের স্বৈরাচারবিরোধী আন্দোলনের ধারাবাহিকতায় এবং জুলাই অভ্যুত্থানের স্পিরিটকে ধারণ করে একটি নয়া রিপাক্লিকের ভিত্তি তৈরি করছি যা একটি অন্তর্ভুক্তিমূলক রাজনৈতিক জনগোষ্ঠী গঠনে প্রতিশ্রুতিবদ্ধ। আমরা এতদ্বারা গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশের জন্য এই সংবিধান প্রণয়ন ও গ্রহণ করছি যা এমন একটি রাষ্ট্র গঠনের অঙ্গীকার করে যেখানে নাগরিকদের দিব্য সম্ভাবনার সর্বোচ্চ অর্জনের নিশ্চয়তা থাকে।

 

Fundamental Principles

  1. Human Dignity: The Republic shall be responsible to guarantee human dignity where people will be treated with respect and compassion both by the fellow citizens and state institutions while being protected from symbolic and expressive harms of policies and practices that fail to recognize the worth of each individual and group.
  2. Democracy: Bangladesh shall be a democracy where people will exercise their sovereign power through the state and societal institutions to ensure a dignified life.
  3. Social Justice: To end discrimination in all forms, the economic structure of the republic shall guarantee social justice based on the politics of compassion and accountability that will create a fair and equitable society enabling access of all individuals to opportunities, resources, and rights necessary to live a dignified life.
  4. Diversity: In Bangladesh, as a political community, people with diverse identities, beliefs, abilities, and practices shall thrive according to their unique potential. To that end, the republic shall guarantee the presence of a public sphere that safeguards the right to life and fosters harmonious coexistence.

 

Bill of Dignity

  1. People of Bangladesh shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and movement, and freedom of spiritual life.
  2. It is the inherent right of the people of Bangladesh to participate in democratic practices including but not limited to right to vote and right to have access to information.
  3. People of Bangladesh shall be treated equally before law regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity or disability.
  4. People of Bangladesh shall enjoy the right to protect bodily integrity whether being alive or dead.
  5. A person shall not be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention, custodial torture, enforced disappearance, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and extra-judicial killing.
  6. People of Bangladesh shall enjoy the Right to maintain privacy both in Private and Social domain
  7. The republic shall take all necessary actions to ensure equality of opportunity so that people of Bangladesh can live a life with dignity while enjoying food and nutritional security, equal access to public health, education, minimum wage, public service and justice.

 

Power Structure

  1. There will be two houses in the parliament of Bangladesh – the lower chamber and the upper chamber.
  2. There will be 300 seats in the lower chamber and 100 seats in the upper chamber.
  3. The Members of the lower chamber will be elected through the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system whereas members of the upper chamber will be elected through the Open List Proportional Representation (PR) system.
  4. In case of electing members of the upper chamber, the seats will be distributed based on the percentage of votes received by the political parties in national election (lower chamber votes).
  5. In the upper chamber, once the seats are distributed among the political parties, they will select 80 percent members from the open list shared earlier. The remaining 20 percent will be non-partisan members selected from the following categories.
  • Professionals (Doctors, Engineers, Teachers etc.)
  • Women
  • Small Ethnic Groups
  • Religious Minorities
  • Labor
  • Farmers
  • Cultural Activists
  • PWD
  • Other groups identified through consultation with the political parties[1]
  1. The party that wins the majority in the Lower Chamber will form the government and elects a Prime Minister to carry out Executive Functions of the State.
  2. Both the houses will participate in the legislative process but, in case of disagreement, the lower chamber will have the final say in determining legislative outcome unless and until laws proposed by or placed before the lower houses influences the ‘Bill of Dignity’ mentioned above.
  3. In those cases (i.e., laws that will influence the Bill of Dignity) both Houses will need to agree, and the bill must pass the lower chamber with a simple majority and upper chamber with super majority (60% of the votes).
  4. In case of constitutional amendment, a three-fourth majority (in both houses) followed by a referendum will be required.
  5. The upper chamber will control the oversight agenda and will perform the following functions –
    1. The institutions of accountability (i.e., the constitutional e.g., Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General, Election Commission, Public Service Commission and Statutory, e.g. the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Information Commission etc. bodies) will be responsible to the upper chamber. There will be a separate standing committee at the upper chamber which will evaluate the reports prepared by the institutions of accountability, hold hearings on these reports, and may even ask these institutions to prepare reports on specific issues or questions.
    2. The upper chamber will also be responsible for selecting the Chairs and Members of the Institutions of Accountability (IOA). There will be a search committee that will suggest a list containing 3 to 5 names for each position (be it Chair or Member) and the Upper Chamber will be responsible for selecting Chair and Member from that list. For this –
      1. A standing committee can be formed at the upper chamber where members will be selected by the political parties in proportion to their seats in the upper chamber or in proportion to votes received in the lower chamber.[2]
      2. The committee will then hold a public hearing where all the individuals whose names have been proposed will participate. After that, the committee will vote on the candidates, select one for each position, and send those names to the upper chamber.
  • The upper chamber will then vote on the candidates and if the majority agrees, the candidates will be finally selected.
  1. There can be several standing committees on different issues areas (e.g., finance, national defense, administration, food security etc.) and these committees will hold hearings on these issues, when they think of doing so. The committee members will be selected by the political parties based on formula suggested in 2(a).

 

Constituent Assembly

  1. There will be a constituent assembly to draft the constitution.
  2. The assembly will be constituted with 300 members – 270 members (90%) will be elected through proportional representation

 

 

[1] This means that the open list prepared by the political parties must include names belonging to these different categories. Percentage of representatives to be chosen from each category will be decided through consultation with the parties.

[2] For instance, let us assume that we are going to select a 10-member committee. Now, if in the upper chamber, there are four parties – party A has 43 seats, party B has 33, party C has 17 and party D has 7 seats. Therefore, party A will have 4 members, party B will have 3 members, party C will have 2 members and party D will have 1 member.

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[1] For instance, let us assume that we are going to select a 10-member committee. Now, if in the upper chamber, there are four parties – party A has 43 seats, party B has 33, party C has 17 and party D has 7 seats. Therefore, party A will have 4 members, party B will have 3 members, party C will have 2 members and party D will have 1 member.
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