Election for reserved women's seats set for May 12

Voting for the reserved women's seats in the 13th National Parliament election will be held on May 12. 

The Election Commission will announce the schedule for this election on April 8.

This information was disclosed by EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed following the 11th Commission meeting held at the Election Building in Agargaon, Dhaka, on Monday afternoon.

He stated that the schedule for the election to the reserved women's seats would be announced on April 8, with the polling itself taking place on May 12.

The Commission meeting began at 11 am in the meeting room of the Election Building to finalise the schedule and the date of the vote for the reserved women's seats. 

In addition to determining the schedule, other important issues were discussed and decisions were taken during the meeting. 

The final voter list for the reserved women's seats election is also scheduled to be published before the announcement of the schedule.

The meeting was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin and attended by other election commissioners. Senior EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed and other senior officials were also present.

According to EC sources, a total of five agenda items were discussed in the meeting. These included elections to the reserved women's seats and related matters; notification regarding instructions to returning officers on the preservation of election materials used in the 13th National Parliament election; notification regarding the general election in the Sherpur-3 constituency and the by-election in the Bogura-6 constituency to be held on April 9; notification on some important pre-election cases and election petitions filed after the election; and notification regarding the policy on compensation for those injured or killed while performing election duties. Various other issues were also discussed.

Under the National Parliament (Reserved Women's Seats) Election (Amendment) Act, 2023, political parties must complete all activities related to whether or not to hold elections on a coalition basis for the reserved women's seats within 30 working days from the date of publication of the gazette notification for the parliamentary election. 

The final voter list is to be published the following day. Accordingly, the 30 working days ended on Sunday, and the final voter list was scheduled to be published on Monday.

The election for the reserved women's seats must be held within 90 days of the publication of the gazette for the parliamentary election. The Commission has therefore decided to hold the election on May 12, which falls before the May 14 deadline. The Commission had initially hoped to complete the process in April.