Both politics and business conditions increasingly will be affected by the approaching parliamentary elections. Synopsis of Political System Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy. The Parliament has 300 elected members. An additional 30 seats are reserved for women chosen by majority vote in Parliament. Candidates may contest a maximum of five seats in any one election, but may hold only one.
Parliament can sit for up to five years before dissolution and new elections.
Parliament elects the country's President, whose duties are largely ceremonial, to a five-year term. Following its war of independence in 1971 and the establishment of a new Constitution in 1972, Bangladesh held its first parliamentary election in March 1973, which solidified the Awami League s ruling majority. In the August 1975 coup, Sheikh Mujib and most of his family were murdered. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, was out of the country and survived, later becoming the Awami League chief. His party's mantle passed to his wife, Begum Khaleda Zia.