NCC finalises plan to elect 100 upper house members via PR system

The National Consensus Commission (NCC) has finalised a proposal to establish a 100-member upper house in a bicameral parliamentary system, with members elected through a Proportional Representation (PR) system based on the percentage of votes received by political parties.

The decision was announced on Thursday (July 31) during the 23rd and final session of the second phase of NCC’s political dialogue, held at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

Professor Ali Riaz, vice president of the NCC, made the announcement following weeks of discussions among political parties.

Despite strong opposition from several parties—including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Nationalist Alliance, NDM, 12-Party Alliance, and the Labour Party—the commission moved forward with the proposal, citing the need for institutional reform and balanced representation.

According to the NCC framework, the upper house will not have independent legislative authority. However, all non-financial bills must be introduced in both the lower and upper houses. While the upper house can review and suggest amendments, it cannot indefinitely block legislation. If it fails to respond within one month, the bill will be deemed approved and forwarded to the President.

In case of rejection, the bill will be returned to the lower house with proposed amendments. The lower house may then choose to accept or reject those amendments in full or in part.

The NCC has also proposed that at least 10 percent of the candidates nominated for the upper house must be women, with their names to be announced alongside national election campaigns.

BNP Standing Committee Member Salahuddin Ahmed voiced strong objection to both the electoral mechanism and the limited powers of the proposed upper house. “The BNP and its allied parties do not support the PR system or the defined role of the upper chamber,” he said. “We will not endorse the plan until our formal note of dissent is recorded.”

Separately, leftist and Islamist parties—including the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and Aam Janata Dal—rejected the very idea of forming an upper house. They argued that Bangladesh's current socio-economic conditions do not justify the need for a second parliamentary chamber.

With persistent disagreements among political parties, the final decision was delegated to the commission, which formally declared the outcome on Thursday.