A gender-biased election system!

When out of 85 women contestants only seven are elected in the just concluded parliamentary polls, the message it gives is not at all savoury. Of the seven, six are from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the rest one contested as an independent candidate. Yet there is a twist to the tale because the victorious independent candidate belonged to the BNP and was expelled from the party only months before.

In a country that had only women prime ministers ---Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina---for the period beginning with 1991 until July 2024, the number of directly elected members of parliament (MPs) were always small. Thus the question of reserved seats for women came to the fore. In the first parliamentary election (1973-75), there was no directly elected woman parliamentarian. But there were 15 women MPs from the reserved quota. Two women people's representatives were elected in the second parliamentary election and the number of reserved seats was made double the number to 30.  Strangely, there were no reserved seats for women in the fourth parliament but four women were directly elected to grace parliament.

In the fifth parliament, the provision of reserved seats was restored. But the eighth and ninth parliaments saw the reserved seats for women increased to 45 and 50 respectively. While the number of the directly elected women MPs was still insignificant in the eighth parliament at seven, the ninth Jatiya Sangsad saw a major increase to 21 and the quota for reserved was also raised to 50. Even during the one-sided polls of 2014, 2018 and 2024, directly elected MPs were 18, 23 and 19 respectively.

Following the July-August, 2024 uprising, there was hope that the gender-biased attitude towards women's candidacy would be replaced by a more rational distribution of candidacy for women and their electoral win. But nothing positive happened in this regard. One of the political parties made it public during the election campaign that their leader could never be a woman. This is not surprising at all because the party in question is known for such entrenched misogynistic views. The problem lies with the other parties in the election fray. At a time when 2034 candidates contest in the election, only 85 women contestants among them indeed cut a sorry figure. Their success rate is a little above eight per cent while it is 15 per cent for men.

If gender discrimination at the parliamentary election and representation at the JS is so palpable, how women are represented at various levels of society hardly needs an elaboration. But the majority of the candidates, unlike men, of them are highly educated. If a larger number of women candidates are denied participation in parliamentary contest, the country can only find itself on a retrogressive road. In this context, the fact that 59 per cent of the elected members are businesspeople may throw some light on the fault line of the polling system. Here money speaks. Two highly educated women were defeated in the contest. One of them came to Bangladesh from the United Kingdom (UK), leaving her medical practice and research in that country. The other one, also a physician known as the 'doctor of the poor', from Barishal banked on common people's love and power also failed to win.

These two women did not have enough money to spend for election campaign and relied on crowd funding. The initial response was highly positive but they had to concede defeat to the money power and party politics. There indeed lies the equation not only between candidates backed by big political party and money at the disposal of candidates while the gender prejudice also makes a conspiracy against such candidates. The defeats of Tasnim Jara and Manisha Chakrabarty are not only highly frustrating but also point to the fact that society in general is yet to be ready to accept women as their leaders.

Imagine if such candidates had the blessing of dynastic politics! They would have an easy riding to political stardom and might be contenders for the position of premiership. If Kamala Harris loses to Donald Trump, there is no surprise that these two and other highly qualified women stand little chance against moneyed people backed by a large party.

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com