The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday announced the election schedule for the women’s reserved seats of the 13th parliament, setting May 12 as the date for 'voting'.
EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed declared the election schedule for the 50 reserved seats at a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban.
Although nominally 'elected', the elections to these 50 seats in Parliament are held indirectly, based on the proportional representation of political parties in the 300 directly elected general seats. Following the general election, seats are allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the total seats.
The number of seats for each party is determined by multiplying the number of seats won by 50 and dividing by 300.
Based on that calculation, the EC secretary said the BNP and its alliance will get 36 seats (having won 212 seats) , while the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its alliance partners will get 13 seats (having won 77 seats) and the group of six independent MPs will get the remaining one seat.
Parties nominate women for their allocated slots, and they are officially elected as a formality by the directly elected MPs - that essentially is the process that will take place on May 12.
According to the schedule, the deadline for submission of nomination papers is April 21, which must be submitted to the EC Secretariat.
The nomination papers will be scrutinized on April 22 and 23. The last date for filing appeals against the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers by the returning officer is April 26, while disposal of appeals will be held on April 27 and 28.
The deadline for withdrawal of candidature is April 29, and election symbols will be allocated on April 30. The 'voting' by the MPs will be held on May 12.
The MPs are supposed to cast votes to elect MPs to the reserved seats, if there is more than one candidate against any seat. But they usually don’t need to cast those votes as the parties don’t field more candidates than their allocated seats.
Akhtar Ahmed said the six independent candidates have formed a group to field a candidate for one seat. Meanwhile, Islami Andolon Bangladesh and independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana will not join any alliance.
In the 13th parliamentary election held on February 12, 2026, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secured 209 seats. Its allies — Gono Odhikar Parishad, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) and Ganosamhati Andolon — won one seat each.
On the other hand, Jamaat-e-Islami, winning 68 seats, represents the opposition. Its allies—NCP won six seats, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish two seats, and Khelafat Majlish one seat.
Outside the two alliances, Islami Andolan Bangladesh won one seat, and seven candidates were elected as independents.
According to the law, the EC must hold elections for the reserved women seats within 90 days of an election being gazetted, which in this case happened on February 13, the day after the general election.