Women MPs drop in 13th Parliamentary Election

The 13th National Parliamentary Election saw a sharp decline in directly elected women representatives, with only seven winning seats—the lowest in recent history. Of 1,981 candidates, just 81 (4.08%) were women.

In comparison, the 2018 election returned 22 women MPs from 68 female candidates, and the 2024 election saw 19 women win out of 96. Earlier, in 2014, 18 women were elected from 29 female candidates. Both the number of women candidates and their success rate have declined in the latest polls.

Six of the seven elected women are nominees of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won a majority, while one is an independent candidate previously expelled from BNP.

The elected women MPs are: Afroza Khanam Rita (Manikganj-3), Shama Obaid (Faridpur-2), Nayab Yusuf Ahmed (Faridpur-3), Israt Sultana Elen Bhutto (Jhalokathi-2), Tahsina Rushdir Luna (Sylhet-2), independent Rumin Farhana (Brahmanbaria-2), and Farzana Sharmin Putul (Natore-1).

Vote counts for the winners include Rita with 167,345 votes, Obayed 121,694, Kamal 148,545, Bhutto 113,419, Luna 117,956, Farhana 118,547, and Putul 102,726. Farhana’s margin of victory was 37,568 votes over her nearest rival.

Between 1991 and 2008, the number of directly elected women MPs ranged from 5 to 19. The latest result has renewed discussions on women’s political participation in Bangladesh.