THE national consensus commission on the fourth day of its second-round dialogue on June 18 dealt with the process of presidential elections, which came to be adjourned as the 30 political parties that attended the dialogue could not have a consensus. The reforms commission has proposed an electoral college of 505 votes from the proposed national assembly and the senate, 64 votes from district coordination councils and one vote each from city corporation coordination councils. The vice-chair of the consensus commission has said that two-thirds of the parties in the first round agreed to the proposed electoral college. Among the major political parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has opposed the proposal for the electoral college for the presidential election and, rather, demanded legal reforms to enhance the president鈥檚 role. The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has supported the proposal provided that the local government elections are held under a caretaker government. The commission鈥檚 vice-chair has said that the discussion on the electoral college would be aligned with broader debates on defining the presidential powers. The president is now indirectly elected by the members of the parliament, who are also elected representatives.
The debate on how the president would be elected is important and this should continue, taking other issues into consideration. But, the main debate should be how to deal with the immense powers that are vested in the prime minister and how to empower the president more to strike a balance between the heads of the government and the state. The prime minister is head of the executive. And, the prime minister is also leader of the house, which makes the position chief of the legislative. Yet, the prime minister has so far also been head of the ruling political party. With all three positions combined, or one person heading three entities, the judiciary could be affected. This proposition also leaves the space for the single person as head of the executive, the legislative and the political party to become autocratic. This has already been seen in the case of the authoritarian regime for a decade and a half of the Awami League, toppled in a mass uprising on August 5, 2024, at a great cost, creating the scope for putting issues on the track. The efforts are visible in the ongoing reforms process in various sectors.
The interim government should, therefore, aim at empowering the president more and taking some off the prime minister to strike a balance between the heads of the government and the state and stop the prime minister from becoming autocratic.
