Debate over PR deepens as Salahuddin warns of pol unrest

Staff Reporter :

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed on Thursday rejected calls for adopting a proportional representation (PR) electoral system, arguing that it would destabilize the country and undermine constitutional governance.

Speaking at a seminar at the Supreme Court Bar auditorium, organized to mark the 15th anniversary of the Bangladesh Nationalist British Law Students Alliance, Salahuddin said no unconstitutional or illegitimate demand from political parties should be entertained at the cost of the nation’s stability.

“PR means ‘Permanent Restlessness’,” he told the audience, warning that the system has created long delays and fragile governments in countries where it has been introduced.

“In some cases, it took one year or more to form a government, and even then, those governments collapsed within months.”

He claimed the push for PR in Bangladesh is not merely about increasing parliamentary seats, but about triggering frequent political crises. “The forces that want Bangladesh to remain in perpetual uncertainty will benefit from this system,” he said.

Salahuddin also criticized recent surveys on PR, describing them as misleading. “One survey shows 56 percent of people do not even understand PR, while another claims 70 percent support it.

This is nothing but confusing the nation,” he argued. He further warned that if citizens cannot directly identify who will represent them, accountability of lawmakers would be weakened.

Echoing his point, he stressed: “Any reform outside the constitution and rule of law will not be good for the country. We want constitutional continuity. No unconstitutional demand of any political party should push the nation into crisis.”

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami’s central publicity secretary Matiur Rahman Akand recently said that following the August 5, 2024, student-people uprising and the fall of Sheikh Hasina, an interim government was formed in line with public aspirations.

“Seventy percent of the people support PR, and 25 out of 31 parties in the Consensus Commission back the system,” he claimed.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A M M Nasir Uddin, however, emphasized that the proportional representation system has no legal basis in Bangladesh.

“PR is not in the constitution, nor in the Representation of the People Order (RPO). We cannot change the law,” he told reporters at the Election Commission headquarters in Agargaon on Thursday.

When asked whether elections could be held under PR in February, he replied: “That would require changing the RPO and the constitution. If we propose that, people will say I am standing against the constitution.”

Debate over electoral reform, particularly PR, has intensified since the July mass uprising opened broader discussions on reshaping state institutions.

Several political parties have taken to the streets demanding PR and related reforms, moving the discussion beyond dialogue tables.

Proportional representation is a system where parliamentary seats are allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote, unlike Bangladesh’s current first-past-the-post system.

Hybrid models also exist in countries such as Germany, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales.

Yet analysts note that Bangladesh’s weak institutional framework — including a fragile Election Commission and contested electoral history — makes swift implementation of such a system highly improbable.

With general elections expected in early 2025, questions remain whether the nation has the constitutional and institutional capacity to embrace such a profound change.