The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
Bangladesh is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy in which elections by secret
ballot are held on the basis of universal suffrage. Members of Parliament are elected
at least every 5 years. The Parliament has 300 elected members, with 30
additional seats reserved for women who are chosen by Parliament. Women are free
to contest any seat in Parliament, and some were elected in their own right in the last
national election, so there are more than 30 women members. While seats are not
specifically reserved for them, other minority groups, such as tribal peoples, are
represented in the legislature. In the current Parliament there are 12 members from
minority groups out of a total of 330.
The last national elections were held in 1991 after the fall of the government of
H.R. Ershad. The BNP won a plurality of seats. It cooperated with the Jamaat-i-Islami
party to elect enough women legislators to give the BNP a slim majority and enable it
to form a government. The opposition is led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed and her Awami
League party. While there are a large number of minor parties, the most significant
opposition parties are the Awami League, the Jatiyo Party (former President Ershad's
party), and the Jamaat-i-Islami, the major Islamic political party which holds 20 seats.
The Awami League and other opposition groups charged the BNP with intimidation
and vote-rigging in a parliamentary by-election in the district of Magura, which the
BNP won. They began a boycott of Parliament and have tried, thus far
unsuccessfully, to force the Government to resign in favor of a caretaker government,
which would oversee new elections. The opposition Members of Parliament resigned
en masse on December 28.
Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
The Government generally permits human rights groups to conduct their activities.
In 1994 such groups published reports, held press conferences, and issued appeals
to the Government in regard to specific cases.
The Government is sensitive to international opinion regarding human rights
issues. It sought to defend its handling of the Taslima Nasreen case but was open to
dialog with international organizations and foreign diplomatic missions.
The Government has put pressure on individual human rights advocates. The
Government did not issue a reentry visa to Father Richard Timm, a Catholic priest
and human rights advocate who has worked in Bangladesh for over 40 years.
Father Timm had applied for the visa to travel abroad for needed medical care.
Government sources indicated that they are still considering Father Timm's case, but
the Government has taken no action for over a year. In a similar case, the
Government took no action on the application for a visa extension by Father Eugene
Homrich, a long time resident American priest. This appears to be a result of his
activities in the Madhupur Forest region, where he works to promote the rights of the
Garos, a minority group.
The Government continues to deny registration to the Bangladesh Human Rights
Commission's Treatment Center for Trauma Victims, making it impossible for the
center to receive funds from foreign donor organizations. Many representatives of
local human rights groups were physically attacked by religious extremists who
considered their activities "un-Islamic." The Government failed to bring to justice
those who engaged in such violence.