The Election Commission yesterday published the gazette of 48 reserved seats for women in the 10th parliament while two such seats for women were remaining vacant.
Sirazul Islam, acting secretary of EC, yesterday told reporters the remaining two were now open for all political parties representing the 10th parliament.
If the political parties recommended their nominees for the two seats, the number of contestants would be much more, and then voting would be held to pick up two women lawmakers, he added.
Earlier, the commission cancelled the candidature of Awami League nominee Sabiha Nahar Begum and Jatiya Party nominated candidate Khorshed Ara Haque for defaulting on telephone bills.
Sirazul, however, said the commission would announce reschedule for the two reserved seats by 21 working days after publishing the gazette as per the laws.
“Political parties have reserved seats for women in the parliament as per the proportion of how many
seats they won for the House. But this case is something else. If more nominations are submitted for the two seats, voting would be the only solution,” he added.
The 10th parliament currently has 297 lawmakers from Awami League, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Party (JP-Manju), Jasad, Workers Party, Tarikat Fedaration, BNF and independent alliance.
According to the law, the new women lawmakers must take oath within three days after publishing the gazette notification.