The Awami League has picked its 48 candidates for seats reserved for women in the 12th parliament.

The ruling party’s parliamentary nomination board finalised the nominations in a five-hour meeting chaired by Prime Minister and party chief Sheikh Hasina at the Ganabhaban on Wednesday.

The nomination papers will be submitted to the Election Commission on Feb 18, General Secretary Obaidul Quader said after the meeting.

Women's seats are allocated in proportion to the number of seats won by parties in the general election. Members of parliament elected to regular seats become voters for reserved seats.

The Election Commission has set Mar 14 for the voting, but the results are usually known beforehand.

Parties and coalitions, who receive shares of the reserved seats according to the number of parliamentary seats they won, usually select only 50 candidates for the seats.

They will win unopposed after the deadline for withdrawals of nominations ends on Feb 25.

The Awami League, with wins in 225 constituencies, gained 38 reserved seats proportionally.

The party also acquired 10 more seats through an agreement with the 62 Awami League leaders who won the parliamentary elections as independents.

The Official Opposition in Parliament, the Jatiya Party, which secured 11 seats in the polls, has got two seats reserved for women.

From top left: Waseqa Ayesha Khan, Farida Khanam, Aparajita Haque and Nahid Izhar Khan. From bottom left: Shabnam Jahan, Aroma Dutta and Fazilatun Nessa Indira.

THE AL NOMINEES

As many as 1,549 women had bought the Awami League’s nomination forms for the reserved seats at Tk 50,000 each.

The nominees include seven who had worked as reserved seat members of the last parliament.

They are Waseqa Ayesha Khan, Farida Khanam, Aparajita Haque, Nahid Izhar Khan, Shabnam Jahan, Aroma Dutta and former state minister Fazilatun Nessa Indira.

In the contingent of reserved seat MPs, the Awami League accommodated four female leaders, who could not contest or lost after winning the party’s ticket in the general election.

They are Meher Afroz Chumki of Gazipur-5, Sanzida Khanam of Dhaka-4, Shammi Ahmed of Barishal-4, and Faridunnahar Laily of Lakshmipur-4.

Former state minister Chumki, the president of Mohila Awami League, and Sanzida lost the polls.

Shammi, the international affairs secretary of the ruling party, was barred by the Election Commission from contesting because of her dual citizenship.

The Awami League ceded the constituency of its agriculture secretary Laily to its 14-Party Alliance partner the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal under a seat-sharing deal.

From left: Meher Afroz Chumki, Sabzida Khanam, Shammi Ahmed and Faridunnahar Laily.

Kanon Ara Begum of the Ganatantri Party, an ally of the Awami League, is among 34 new faces out of the 48 selected for reserved seats.

Besides Shammi, the new faces from the ruling party’s central committee are Education and Manpower Secretary Shamsun Naher Chapa, Health Secretary Rokeya Sultana and member Parven Zaman Kolpona.

Among those who made a return, former state minister Tarana Halim had worked in the ninth and the 10th parliament.

Munnujan Sufian, state minister for labour and employment of the last government who had been elected MP from Khulna-3 in the last three polls, was denied a direct candidacy this time.

She is making it to parliament as a reserved seat MP now.