BNP’s commanding majority allows reform without paralysis

The decisive mandate secured by the BNP in the 13th parliamentary election is expected to deliver stability, combining political authority with a clearly sequenced reform programme.

Bangladesh is emerging from the institutional decay left by long authoritarian rule under the Awami League regime. A fragmented parliament would have prolonged uncertainty, whereas a commanding majority allows reforms to proceed without paralysis.

Stability, therefore, is assumed to be institutional, rule-based, and durable. This majority is not merely numerical. It reflects the alignment of mandate, measurable targets, institutional reform, youth employment generation, women's empowerment, and fiscal realism. The roadmap is clear, the targets defined, and the implementation mechanisms specified.

The party's growth strategy for restoration and reconstruction is anchored in numbers. The manifesto sets a clear goal: a trillion-dollar economy by 2035. It commits to raising the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15% by 2035, with a medium-term target of 10%, including the rapid mobilisation of an additional 2% revenue without imposing new taxes.

This approach is fiscally realistic and administratively achievable through efficiency, compliance expansion, and waste reduction rather than austerity measures. Public trust in the BNP and its current chairman rests on credibility, continuity, and measurable impact.

This trust is built on a proven foundation: its founder and former president Ziaur Rahman, rescued a fragile post-war, post-famine economy through labour export and the establishment of the garment sector, creating pillars of remittance and garment-led growth.

Former prime minister and the party's former chairperson Khaleda Zia lifted nearly 20 million people out of poverty, expanded women's participation in the workforce, and restored democratic governance.

Youth employment is central to the BNP's plans, with strategies to create millions of jobs through the investment–production–employment–tax cycle.

Technical education, skills training, digital capacity building, and targeted youth development programmes are integrated into the implementation framework, alongside overseas employment expansion through structured skill enhancement. Industrial revival, SME growth, energy security, and infrastructure development will absorb young workers productively.

The manifesto also introduces innovative measures for the marginalised, including family and farmers cards. Loans up to Tk10,000 for farmers, livestock owners, and fishermen will be waived with interest to rejuvenate the rural economy and promote financial inclusion.

One year of instalment support for registered small loan institutions will ease debt pressure. Wage adjustments linked to cost-of-living changes will protect labourers. Social protection will be consolidated from over 100 fragmented programmes into an integrated digital public infrastructure, reducing leakage and political manipulation.

Women are recognised as central to this transformation. Expanding their participation in employment, enterprise, and social protection will directly raise household incomes and national productivity. Inclusion is not symbolic; it is economically strategic.

Confidence in delivery is grounded in the BNP's track record. In previous terms, it inherited fragile macroeconomic conditions but restored stability, accelerated growth, strengthened exports, and maintained fiscal discipline.

Having governed under constraints and delivered recovery before, it is expected to do so again.

Sketch: TBS

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir is a development studies professor at Dhaka University.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.