Gazipur to Get One Additional Seat, Bagerhat to Lose One: Proposal by Election Commission

The Election Commission (EC) has taken an initiative to redraw parliamentary constituencies ahead of the upcoming national elections. As part of this process, the EC has proposed to add one parliamentary seat in Gazipur and reduce one seat in Bagerhat.

On Wednesday (30 July), Election Commissioner Anwarul Islam Sarkar shared the information with reporters from his office at the Election Commission headquarters in Agargaon, Dhaka.

He said the proposal was made based on the report of a special technical committee formed to review constituency boundaries. The EC has already published a draft of the proposed boundaries.

How the Seat Numbers Are Changing

Currently, Bagerhat has four and Gazipur has five parliamentary constituencies. According to the new proposal:

• Bagerhat will have three seats instead of four
  
  

• Gazipur will have six seats instead of five
  
  

Commissioner Anwarul Islam explained that the changes were made based on the average number of voters and the population. The average number of voters across 64 districts was determined to be 420,500. Using this benchmark, adding a seat in Gazipur and reducing one in Bagerhat would bring balance.

Minor to Moderate Changes in 42 Constituencies

According to the Election Commission, minor to moderate boundary changes have been proposed for 39 to 42 parliamentary constituencies. However, more than 150 constituencies from the last national election will remain unchanged.

The constituencies proposed for boundary adjustment or alignment include:

• Panchagarh-1, 2; Rangpur-3; Sirajganj-1, 2; Satkhira-3, 4; Khulna-1 to 6; Shariatpur-2, 3;
  
  

• Dhaka-2, 3, 7, 10, 14, 19; Gazipur-1 to 3, 5, 6; Narayanganj-4, 5; Sylhet-1, 3;
  
  

• Brahmanbaria-2, 3; Comilla-1, 2, 10, 11; Noakhali-1, 2, 4, 5; Chattogram-7, 8.
  
  

So far, the Election Commission has received around 1,500 applications regarding the proposed redistricting. The technical committee has suggested revisions in 42 significant constituencies.

Objections and Gazette Notification

Commissioner Anwarul Islam stated that anyone wishing to raise objections to the draft proposal may submit them by 10 August. After the hearings on those objections, the final gazette notification of the revised boundaries will be published.

He added that while working with data from the 2022 population census, the technical committee identified several inconsistencies when cross-checked with the updated voter list. As a result, the committee prepared its assessment using the actual number of voters, with an acceptable margin of ±20,500 voters.

However, districts with only one to three constituencies were not considered for seat increases or reductions.