The National Consensus Commission on Monday said that the first round of dialogues with political parties concluded with unanimous support for some reform proposals, while some proposals received support from most parties but disagreement remained about many key reform issues.

Providing the updates on the process of consensus building among the political parties on the proposals by five reform commissions covering the constitution, electoral process, judiciary, public administration, and Anti-Corruption Commission, NCC vice-chair Professor Ali Riaz addressed a press briefing at 3:00pm at the LD Hall of Jatiya Sangsad in the capital Dhaka.

Later at 7:00pm, the NCC vice-chair and the commission’s other members met the interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at his official residence Jamuna.

Given the spreadsheets with 166 key reform proposals, 32 political parties discussed them in 45 sessions with the NCC between March 20 and May 19.

While there was a broad agreement reached on restoring the caretaker government system for the general elections and ensuring judicial independence, sharp divisions persisted over the proposed fundamental principles in the constitution, bicameral Jatiya Sangsad, decentralisation of the judiciary and other issues.

Summarising the results, Ali Riaz said that no political party had opposed the reinstatement of the election-time caretaker government. The system was abolished by the Awami League through the 15th constitutional amendment in 2011.

Among the major proposals that received unanimous support were holding local elections under the Election Commission, creating a provision for the JS deputy speaker from the opposition bench, establishing a Supreme Court secretariat and enacting a relevant law to separate the judiciary from the executive, and introducing a clemency board  through legislation with the provision for presidential clemency based on its recommendations.

All parties also supported reforming the Right to Information Act 2009 and the Official Secrets Act 1923, and amending Article 116 of the constitution to  empower the Supreme Court in overseeing the judicial appointments and treating politically motivated judicial misconduct as a disciplinary offence.

On the issues of reforming the Anti-Corruption Commission and public administration, all parties agreed to the enactment of laws to address conflicts of interest and prevent the misuse of state and legal powers.

They also supported automating public services and information management, and separating the Audit Division from the Accounts Division.

The reform proposals that received support from the majority of the parties included constitutional recognition of the ACC, empowering the anti-corruption ombudsman, appointing the most senior judge of the Supreme Court as the chief justice, a bicameral parliament, and making opposition lawmakers as the chairs of the parliamentary committees on public procurement, budgeting, and public undertakings.

A majority of the parties also agreed to the proposals to appoint an impartial, honest, efficient, and dignified individual as the country’s president, an independent delimitation authority, and an independent investigation commission to try the officials allegedly involved in the July 2024 massacre, vote rigging, and corruption during the Awami League regime.

The proposal that political parties must provide any information about them if any citizen of the country seeks it under the purview of the Right to Information Act, too, received support from a majority of the parties.

Other proposals receiving majority support included the re-establishment of magistrate courts at the upazila level as per the Supreme Court recommendation, an independent and permanent public administration reform commission, and three separate public service commissions.

However, the NCC vice-chair revealed that many proposals related to constitutional reform failed to garner consensus.

These proposals included decentralising the judiciary, appointing the chief adviser of caretaker government and determining its tenure, a national constitutional council, fixing term limits for the prime minister, the process of electing the president and the constitutional amendment procedure.

The majority of parties also rejected proposals for adding ‘pluralism’ as a fundamental principle of the constitution, reforming the ICT (Tribunal) Act, and the Representation of the People Order to bar individuals accused of crimes against humanity from contesting elections.

Most of the parties also opposed the creation of four provinces, citizens’ committees at the district and upazila levels, abolishing the district councils and the position of upazila council vice-chairman, and electing municipal mayors through votes by ward members.

NCC vice-chair Riaz said that the commission would begin the second round of discussions at the end of May or in the first week of June to complete drafting a consensus-based national charter by July.

‘The next discussions will focus on the issues that failed to garner consensus,’ Ali Riaz said.

Responding to a question about building consensus, he said that numerical majority would not be the determining factor in this regard.

However, asked what would happen if most parties supported an issue but a major party like the Jamaat-e-Islami opposed it, he declined to answer.