IN RECENT decades, Bangladesh has made significant progress in promoting gender equality in areas such as education, health and employment. However, when it comes to politics 鈥� the sphere that defines who makes decisions and sets the direction of public life 鈥� women remain vastly underrepresented. While the country has been led by women prime ministers...
PROPORTIONAL representation is often praised for making electoral systems fairer. It can ensure more accurate vote-to-seat ratios, greater inclusion of small parties, better minority representation, and coalition-based governance that reflects diverse voices. However, it also comes with serious risks 鈥� policy gridlock, coalition instability, empowerment of extreme factions, and weakened accountability...
AS BANGLADESH continues to navigate its democratic journey, calls for reforming the electoral system have gained traction. One of the prominent proposals is the introduction of Proportional Representation 鈥� a system designed to ensure that the distribution of seats in the legislature mirrors the percentage of votes each political party receives. While Bangladesh...
The Islami Andolan Bangladesh on Saturday demanded that the next general election be held under the proportionate representation system after required reforms and trials of those involved in the fascist regime of Sheikh Hasina and their collaborators...
AS RISING seas swallow coasts, floods wash away livelihood and droughts parch once-fertile lands, the image of the climate-displaced person has become an emblem of the unfolding climate crisis. These stark environmental shifts are no longer distant projections but daily realities for millions across the globe. The world, especially countries in the Global North, has...
THERE are moments in a nation鈥檚 history when silence bears more weight than slogans. In post-uprising Bangladesh, a country navigating political rupture and renewal after the fall of long-standing authoritarian rule, the language of reform rings loudly across press briefings and policy drafts. Yet parallel to this public performance of transformation runs a quieter, more...
Citizen鈥檚 Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh convener Debapriya Bhattacharya on Thursday said that there were no appropriate representatives to speak for the backward sections of people in the commissions formed by the interim government to make reforms in the country...
DELIVERING his inaugural policy statement to the parliament, Sri Lanka鈥檚 president Anura Kumara Dissanayake dealt mostly with the economy and, in particular, the IMF agreement. The problem that he faces is that the previous government agreed to terms with the International Monetary Fund that did not consider the impact on the people but gave priority...
RECENTLY, Bangladesh鈥檚 interim government established a commission to reform the electoral system, which has sparked a longstanding debate about how to ensure fair representation. Supporters of the first-past-the-post system argue that it effectively allows the candidate with the most votes in a constituency to win a seat. In contrast...