Bangladesh to have more women MPs

Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina is one of the few women in parliament

The governing coalition in Bangladesh has agreed to expand the country's parliament and set aside more seats for women.

Currently there are only a handful of women MPs in Bangladesh, a country of 130 million people.

The decision came at a meeting of the leaders of the four parties in the coalition, chaired by the Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia.

A spokesman for the alliance, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, told reporters after the meeting that 100 more general seats would be added to the parliament, which now has 300 members.

Fifty seats would be reserved for women, which Mr Bhuiyan said fulfilled a promise made by the alliance before the election.

'Under represented'

Women's rights activists say that they are under represented, even though the country has a woman prime minister and a woman opposition leader.

The activists say that while the latest announcement is a step in the right direction, it does not allow women to be directly elected to parliament.

Instead it says the extra women MPs will be allocated seats according to the overall strength of each party in the legislature.

Mr Bhuiyan said that the possibility of direct elections of women to parliament would be further discussed in the cabinet.

He said that he hoped the government would also be able to honour its manifesto commitment to expand the Bangladesh parliament so that it could accommodate 500 MPs.