The National Consensus Commission on Thursday, July 31, announced its decision to establish a 100-seat upper house of parliament, with members nominated through proportional representation based on the vote share each political party received in the lower house elections.The announcement followed extensive discussions with political parties at the Foreign Service Academy on Thursday, the 23rd day of the ongoing dialogue.Due to a lack of consensus among the parties, the commission took responsibility for finalising the decision.The proposed upper house will have no independent law-making authority.All bills, except money bills, must be presented in both houses.

The upper house cannot indefinitely delay a bill; if a bill is held for more than a month, it will be deemed approved.

The upper house’s role will be to review and analyse bills proposed by the lower house, approving or rejecting them within a specified timeframe.

Approved bills will be sent to the President for assent. If the upper house rejects a bill, it will return to the lower house with amendment recommendations, which the lower house may accept or reject partially or fully.Opposition to the proposal came from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies, including the Nationalist Alliance, 12-Party Alliance, National Democratic Movement (NDM), and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who argued that seat allocation should be based on lower house seats rather than vote share.

They also raised concerns about the upper house’s jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam opposed the upper house’s formation, citing its irrelevance to the country’s current socio-economic context.

Consensus Commission Vice-Chairman Ali Riaz opened the discussion, expressing optimism about concluding the dialogue phase and preparing a final document.

“We aim to finalise the document swiftly and organize a signing ceremony,” he said, noting that a list of agreed-upon issues and points of contention would be shared with the parties soon.

The meeting, moderated by Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Monir Haider, included commission members Safar Raj Hossain, Justice Emdadul Haque, Dr Badiul Alam Majumder, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, and Muhammad Ayub Mia.Representatives from 30 political parties, including BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, National Conference Party (NCP), Islami Andolan, CPB, and Ganosamghati Andolan, participated in the discussions.