Disagreement in fundamental reform proposals as first phase of dialogue ends

The first phase of dialogues between political parties and the National Consensus Commission, aimed at building consensus on reforms in various sectors of the state, has concluded.

Although there is an agreement among the parties on many of the recommendations from the five reform commissions, differences remain on key proposals such as ensuring a balance of power.

Sources within the Consensus Commission indicate that, after analysing the outcomes of the first phase, the second phase of discussions with political parties will begin soon.

In this phase, fundamental reform proposals will be given more importance, and topic-specific discussions will take place on issues where there are differences of opinion.

The second phase is expected to start before the Eid-ul-Azha (early June). Based on discussions with the parties, a “July Charter” will be drafted, which the Commission aims to finalise by July.

The core reform proposals are mainly related to constitutional changes. One of the major objectives mentioned by the Constitutional Reform Commission is to prevent any future rise of a fascist and authoritarian government and to strike a balance of power among the three branches of the state—the executive, legislature and judiciary.

To ensure such balance and prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual, several constitutional reforms have been proposed.

Notable among these are: reducing the Prime Minister’s absolute authority; limiting the tenure of a Prime Minister to a maximum of two terms; prohibiting one person from simultaneously holding the positions of Prime Minister, leader of the parliament and party chief; forming a National Constitutional Council (NCC) for appointments to constitutional positions; establishing a bicameral legislature; and holding elections to the upper house based on proportional representation (The seats in the upper house would be distributed as per the percentage of vote in general elections).

Also proposed is allowing members of the lower house to vote against their own party on all bills except money bills.

Almost all parties support the proposal for a bicameral parliament, but there is disagreement about the method of election. On other proposals, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has major differences with the Commission.

However, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP) are closer to the Commission's position, with NCP emphasising fundamental reforms.

There is also significant disagreement among parties regarding the process of implementing the reforms. So far, the Commission has not had detailed discussions with the parties about this, but the issue is expected to be addressed in the second phase.

To develop reform proposals in various sectors of the state, the interim government formed six reform commissions in October last year.

To build political consensus around these reforms, a National Consensus Commission was formed under the leadership of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, and it officially began its activities on 15 February.

As part of the consensus-building process, the Commission sought feedback from political parties on 166 important recommendations from the five commissions except the Police Reform Commission—constitution, electoral system, anti-corruption, judiciary, and public administration—using a spreadsheet format.

For the proposals that received partial agreement or disagreement, separate discussions were held with the parties. These discussions began on 20 March and concluded yesterday, Monday, in the first phase.

Over two months, the Commission consulted 33 parties. Among them, BNP participated in discussions for three days, while Jamaat and NCP joined for two days each.

To ensure balance of power among the three branches, the Constitutional Reform Commission proposed forming a National Constitutional Council (NCC) composed of representatives from all three branches.

This Council would recommend names to the President for appointments to key constitutional posts, including heads of the defense forces. The President would then appoint these individuals.

Under the current constitution, except for the appointment of the Prime Minister and Chief Justice, the President must act on the advice of the Prime Minister for all matters. The formation of the NCC would reduce the Prime Minister’s power over constitutional appointments.

BNP does not agree with this proposal. According to sources, BNP strongly opposes the NCC, arguing that it would weaken the government.

In contrast, Jamaat and NCP support the proposal in principle. Jamaat, however, prefers to exclude the President and Chief Justice from the Council.

BNP, for its part, has stated that ensuring a balance between the powers of the Prime Minister and President is a commitment of the party. They have proposed enacting a law to increase the President's authority, without specifying which powers would be granted. They suggest this should be determined through discussions in the next parliament.

The Constitutional Reform Commission has proposed that a person may serve as prime minister no more than two terms. Additionally, the same individual cannot simultaneously hold the positions of prime minister, party chief and leader of the House.

The NCP agrees with both proposals while BNP does not. Instead, BNP wants a provision that would allow someone to become prime minister again after a break, even if they have already served two consecutive terms. Moreover, BNP believes that deciding who will be party chief, head of government, and leader of the House should be an internal party matter.

In contrast, Jamaat e Islami’s stance is that the same person cannot simultaneously hold the positions of prime minister and party chief, and that no one should serve as prime minister for more than 10 years in total over their lifetime.

Under Article 70 of the existing constitution, MPs are not allowed to vote against their own party. The article states that if a person elected as an MP under a political party resigns from the party or votes against it in parliament, their seat will be vacated.

The Constitutional Reform Commission has proposed a major change here. According to the proposal, except for finance bills, members of the lower house would have full authority to vote against their party on any issue.

However, there is no full consensus on this proposal. Many parties oppose giving MPs this freedom for matters like confidence votes or constitutional amendments, in addition to finance bills.

BNP's position is that MPs should not be allowed to vote against their party in matters related to confidence votes, finance bills, constitutional amendments and issues involving national security.

Jamaat-e-Islami supports allowing MPs independence in all matters except for finance bills, constitutional amendments and confidence vote.

On the other hand, NCP supports the idea that MPs should have the freedom to express independent opinions in parliament. At the same time, they believe there should be constitutional safeguards to ensure stability of the government.

Differences of opinion still remain on some key proposals, including fundamental principles of the constitution, provisions for declaring a state of emergency, constitutional amendment process, international treaties, process of electing President and method of election in reserved women’s seats in parliament.

However, outside of these fundamental issues, the political parties have agreed with many other proposals from the Constitution and the other four reform commissions.

After the first phase of discussions, BNP stated it agrees with the majority of the recommendations. Jamaat-e-Islami said they agreed with over 120 of 166 recommendations.

On the question of how much progress could be made in the second phase of discussions, Salahuddin Ahmed, a standing committee member of BNP, told Prothom Alo on Monday that they are not yet fully informed of which recommendations have or haven’t reached consensus.

He further said once the second phase begins, these matters will come to light, and the party will comment accordingly.

NCP, a political party launched by the leaders of the July mass uprising, is placing high emphasis on fundamental reforms. They have already submitted a framework on core reforms to the Consensus Commission. However, they are open to reasonable compromises.

NCP’s joint convener Sarwar Tushar told Prothom Alo yesterday that there are disagreements on seven to eight key issues, but the NCP is prepared to be flexible while staying committed to democratic reforms in the power structure.

Jamaat-e-Islami hopes that through the second round of discussions, the parties could come closer to a consensus. The party’s nayeb-e-ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher told Prothom Alo that the Commission will engage in dialogue with the parties on the issues where disagreements remain and a common ground can be found as each party will present its reasoning.

He also said that on critical issues where consensus is not possible, they support putting those matters to a referendum. Once the people have spoken through a referendum, no one should oppose the outcome, as it represents the people’s will.

The first phase of the Consensus Commission’s discussions ended yesterday afternoon with a session involving the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB).

At the beginning of the discussion, Professor Ali Riaz, vice-president of the Commission, said, “In these ongoing discussions with political parties, we’ve reached consensus on many issues, though differences remain on several others. Very soon, we will start the second phase of dialogue and move forward with topic-specific discussions on the unresolved issues, with the goal of quickly finalising a National Charter.”