Bangladesh is a country in the South of Asia and is bordered with two other countries, mostly India but also a small border with Myanmar (also called Burma by some) and as well as that it also has a coast along the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. The country has a densely packed population of 164 million people as of 2017 and its capital Dhaka can be found in the central part of the country. The country is also known for its many waterways and partly hosts the world’s largest delta, the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta that it shares with the Indian state of West Bengal.
The area of Bangladesh was once a part of the British Indian Empire or the British Raj and then it became a part of Pakistan known internationally as East Bengal and later East Pakistan part of the Dominion of Pakistan or the Pakistani Federation which came about from the Partition of Bengal (part of the larger Partition of India) where the land of Bengal was split between India and Pakistan upon vote of legislators in Bengal. The partition of the land dissolved the British Indian Empire and was executed based on Muslim and non-Muslim majorities district-wise but ended up displacing millions and leading to large-scale violence and refugee crises and continuing tensions between India and Pakistan that still exist to this day
Bangladesh itself gained independence in November 1972 after a bloody civil war and occupation from Pakistan forces which also involved Indian forces as well as intervention by both US and Soviet forces in a cold war standoff, but eventually Pakistani forces surrendered leading to Bangladesh drafting its constitution.
Bangladesh’s official language is Bengali and the largest religion is Islam. The currency is the Bangladeshi taka.
Government Type
Bangladesh has two leaders, a President who is Head of State and a Prime Minister who is Head of Government and a single Unicameral Parliament called the Jatiya Sangsad consisting of 350 elected members.
The system allows multiple parties to participate in elections.
Floor crossing is controversially banned by Article 70 of Bangladesh’s constitution, which is where members go against their own party on issues such as voting against or abstaining from a vote or going against Party Whips and also prevents free votes being held. Doing so leads to loss of membership and by-election of the members seat and so it literally never happens and makes Bangladesh’s parliament extremely partisan. The Constitution see’s the practice of Floor Crossing as going against the interests of those who elected them. This also makes votes of no confidence against the Prime Minister basically impossible as party members of the Prime Minister could not dissent.
Executive Government
The Executive Government includes the President as Head of State and the Prime Minister who is appointed from the largest party after Parliamentary Elections by the President and is Head of Government who leads a Cabinet designated by them that formulates and implements governing policy and is responsible to parliament.
The President is elected by the Unicameral Parliament and is mostly a figurehead who acts on advice from the Prime Minister. The President is kept informed on matters of domestic and foreign policy by the Prime Minister and the President may submit a request to Cabinet for the Prime Minister to refer to. Ministers are also designated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the President. The President also appoints the country’s Attorney General and also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in which the President will consult with to appoint the other Judges.
The President can also grant pardons, reprieves and respites and remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court or authority. The President while in office cannot have criminal proceedings against them, be charged, arrested or imprisoned.
The President is in supreme command of the country’s defense forces. He may not declare war and the country may not participate in war without assent by parliament.
A motion of impeachment can be brought against the President over constitutional violation or grave misconduct, the motion must be signed by a majority of parliamentary members, if this happens impeachment proceedings begin, after proceedings if at least two-thirds of parliament vote to impeach the president then he must vacate office. The President can also be removed from office by the parliament on grounds of physical or mental incapacity which uses the exact same process and rules.
The Speaker of the parliament acts as President during the holders or previous holders absence until their return or replacement.
Legislative Government
The Jatiya Sangsad is the Unicameral parliament of Bangladesh and has 350 total members that are elected to 5-year terms in parliamentary elections. The parliament is part of the legislative government and will therefore have committees that draft bills and that are voted on by the parliaments members on whether it should be put into law.
Unicameral means that they only have one house of parliament as opposed to having two separate houses that are unequal to each other, it is instead one equal house.
A Speaker and Deputy Speaker are elected from among the Parliament who make sure parliamentary rules are followed and keep order during sessions.
Electoral System
The President who is Head of State is elected by the Unicameral Parliament through open-ballot, to be eligible for President a candidate must not be under the age of 35 or be a member of the parliament (if they are a parliamentary member and are elected President they must vacate their seat) or if they have previously been removed from the office of president by impeachment.
Due to Article 70 of Bangladesh’s constitution and the fact that the ballot is open when electing the president, the opposition doesn’t have a chance for their candidate to be elected and so normally the governments favored candidate will run unopposed and be elected without contest.
The President is elected for a 5-year term and can hold a max of two terms before stepping aside.
The Unicameral Parliament has 300 of its members elected from single-seat constituencies using the first-past-the-post system. The other 50-seats are reserved for females who are elected through proportional representation using the Single-Transferable vote in multiple-seat constituencies, these members are elected from Party Lists. This means the public get two votes in Parliamentary Elections and the Single-Transferable vote system allows multiple preferences which dictates how the vote transfers in each round until 50 winning candidates remain. All members are elected to 5-year terms.
To be eligible for election to parliament candidates must have Bangladeshi citizenship and be at least 25-years or older. Candidates can be disqualified for a number of reasons including allegiance to foreign states or declared of unsound mind by a court, has been convicted of a criminal offense involving moral turpitude or has been imprisoned for 2 or more years unless a period of 5-years has elapsed since release, holding any office of profit among others.
Voters must be at least 18-years or older and voting is not compulsory.
Thank you for reading! Next up will be the government system of Barbados, a Caribbean island.
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