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Welcome to the Constituency: the social and political intertwined in Bangladesh

How do MPs in Bangladesh build and maintain support within their constituencies? Dr Zahir Ahmed discusses fieldwork with MPs in rural Bangladesh.

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Overview of Parliaments

Jatiya Sangsad: The Parliament of Bangladesh

By Nizam Ahmed

Jatiya Sangsad, as the Parliament is called in Bangladesh, predates the independence of the country in 1971. Its precursor, the Legislative Council of Bengal, was established during the British colonial rule in 1861 when only a few countries outside Europe and North America could claim to have established such an institution. But the Parliament did not have any steady growth until recently. Several structural, procedural and political constraints made the Parliament seriously disadvantaged vis-à-vis other sources of power, particularly the government, during the colonial days and nearly a quarter century of Pakistani neo-colonial rule (1947-71).