The parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendments seeks to change Article 70 of the Constitution that would allow a member of parliament (MP) to lose their seat for voting against their party on four matters: constitutional amendments, money bills, confidence motions, and proposals relating to national security or a state of war.
While MPs in the lower house would be allowed to vote against their party on all other matters, members of the proposed upper house would have no such freedom.
The current Constitution stipulates that an MP will lose their seat if they resign from their party or vote in Parliament against it.
The July National Charter, however, proposed allowing MPs to vote independently on all matters except money bills and confidence motions.
Nurul Islam Moni, chief whip of Parliament and a member of the constitutional amendment committee, said no draft had been finalised yet.
“The constitutional amendment committee has not held any discussions on this. We have held 10 meetings so far and spoken to various stakeholders, listening to their submissions. We will sit together in December to review everything. Besides, the committee will not make any decisions; it will only make recommendations,” he said.
On July 13, Parliament formed a 12-member Special Committee on Constitutional Amendments, headed by Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed. Although the opposition was invited to join the committee, it declined.
Under the existing Constitution, lawmakers cannot freely express their own convictions or reflect public opinion in their constituencies when voting in Parliament. The provision has long been considered a major obstacle to parliamentary democracy.
To address this, the July Charter proposed that MPs be bound by party decisions only when voting on money bills and confidence motions. On all other legislative and policy matters, they would be free to vote independently.
The BNP, however, submitted a note of dissent on the proposal, suggesting two additional exceptions to Article 70: constitutional amendments and matters relating to national security. These provisions were subsequently incorporated into the July Charter, which stated that parties could add the two exceptions if they received a public mandate.
In that sense, the proposed changes to Article 70 in the preliminary draft do not significantly depart from the core provisions of the July Charter.
However, while the draft offers some flexibility to members of the lower house, it retains stricter restrictions on party-line voting in the proposed upper house, or Senate, under the planned bicameral legislature.
The preliminary draft proposes a new Article 70(2), under which a senator would lose their seat for voting against their party on any bill or matter. The draft provides no scope for independent voting by upper-house members.
Although the draft proposes that all decisions of the lower house, except those concerning money bills and constitutional amendments, be referred to the upper house for review, senators would still be unable to vote against their party’s or alliance’s position.
Zahirul Islam Musa, legal affairs secretary of the National Citizen Party (NCP), told Daily Waadaa that his party held a different position on constitutional amendments.
“We are not participating in the process through which the BNP wants to amend the Constitution. However, parliamentary democracy has remained ineffective for a long time because of restrictions on floor-crossing. MPs cannot vote against their parties, and their own thoughts and convictions are not reflected,” he said.
Barrister Moeen M Firozee, a former member of the Constitutional Reform Commission, told Waadaa that allowing MPs to vote independently on all but four matters was a welcome development.
“This means MPs will now be able to vote against their parties even on legislation. That is certainly positive. However, members of the upper house should have been given the same power. The very purpose of an upper house is to ensure checks and balances, and that has suffered a setback,” he said.