The BNP on Sunday put forward a proposal to the National Consensus Commission where it said that no individual should serve more than two consecutive terms as prime minister and called for increasing the powers of the president to ensure a balance of power.
The BNP, however, suggested that a break after two terms could allow the same person to become PM once again.
The party presented the proposals at a meeting with the National Consensus Commission at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on Sunday.
To build political consensus on reforms, the National Consensus Commission is holding a series of dialogues with political parties based on recommendations from five different commissions. Discussions with BNP was part of this effort. After full-day meetings on Thursday and Sunday, the talks were paused but not concluded.
Earlier in March, the commission suggested that an individual can be the prime minister two times at most. Consecutively or through any other means, the individual cannot be the prime minister more than twice.
According to sources, Sunday’s meeting covered nearly all recommendations of the Constitutional Reform Commission and several from the Judicial Reform Commission. Following a lunch break, the discussion turned to the number of terms one individual can serve as Prime Minister. BNP maintained its previous position during the talks. At one point, the Consensus Commission proposed a revised suggestion: a person could serve up to three terms as Prime Minister, with a break after two consecutive terms. Although the proposal was discussed, BNP did not give a final response.
BNP also disagreed with another recommendation from the Constitutional Reform Commission-that the same individual should not hold the positions of Prime Minister, parliamentary leader, and party chief simultaneously. According to sources, the BNP argued that determining the leadership of the party and the leader to be recommended as the PM is an internal matter for the party itself.
BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed commented: “There is no such practice barring the same person from being both head of government and party chief – even in the United Kingdom, this is not the case.”
Asked about the Reform Commission’s proposal limiting a person to three terms as Prime Minister, Professor Dr. Lt. Col. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Chairman of Jatiya Nirbachon Parjobekkhon Parishad (Janipop), said: “To prevent the kind of democratic backsliding we’ve seen over the past 16 years, the best recommendation would have been to allow a person to serve only one term as Prime Minister.”
