The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the legislature (the

Jatiya Sangsad The Jatiya Sangsad (), often simply referred to as Sangsad and also known as is the unicameral Legislature, legislative body of Bangladesh. The current parliament of Bangladesh contains 350 seats, including 50 seats reserved exclusively for w ...

), and the judiciary (the Supreme Court). Bangladesh is a unitary state and the central government has the authority to govern over the entirety of the nation. The seat of the government is located in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, the capital of

. The executive government is led by the prime minister, who selects all the remaining ministers. The prime minister and the other most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the Cabinet. After the resignation of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, the current interim government is led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus as chief adviser.

Head of state

The president serves as the head of state, primarily fulfilling ceremonial duties, while the prime minister, as the

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

, holds the actual executive authority. The president is the commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The president is elected by the legislature every five years and has normally limited powers that are substantially expanded during the tenure of a caretaker government, mainly in controlling the transition to a new government. Bangladesh has instituted a unique system of transfer of power; at the end of the tenure of the government, power is handed over to members of a civil society for three months, who run the general elections and transfer the power to elected representatives. This system was first practiced in 1991 and adopted to the constitution in 1996.''14th Amendment'', Constitution of Bangladesh, 1996. As head of the state, the president can grant pardon to a man sentenced to death penalty or lessen the punishment. In some cases, it also performs some legislative and judicial functions.

Prime minister

The prime minister is ceremonially appointed by the president, in accordance with Article 56(3) of the Constitution, from among the members of parliament who, in the president’s opinion, appear to command the support of the majority of the members. The cabinet is composed of selected ministers. The prime minister exercises supreme power in Bangladesh.

Cabinet

The executive administrates the country and executes the laws, passed by the legislature. It maintains the internal law and order in the country. It also maintains relationship with foreign countries. It works for defence, liberty and sovereignty of the country.

Agencies

The executive calculates the income and expenditure of the government. It also performs various public welfare services such as;

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, agriculture, establishment of industry, trade and commerce, land reform, tax and revenue collection. Beside this, it also accepts and implements various development projects.

Government in parliament

The legislature of Bangladesh is unicameral. Called the

in Bengali, it is the parliament of Bangladesh. The speaker presides over meetings of the Jatiya Sangsad and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. The current Jatiya Sangsad contains 350 seats, including 50 seats reserved exclusively for women and 300 seats for elected members, which are apportioned on elected party position in the parliament. The twelfth national parliamentary election was held on 7 January 2024. The recently resigned speaker is Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who was presiding over the tenth, eleventh and twelfth parliament. She is the first woman to have held this office.

Local government

At the local government level, the country is administratively structured into divisions, districts, subdistricts (

upazila An ''upazila'' ( pronounced: ), formerly called ''thana'', is an administrative division in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district. It can be seen as an analogous to a county or a borough of Western countries. Rural upazilas ...

s), unions, and villages. The lowest level of local government representative are local officials of union council those who are elected at the union level election. All larger administrative units are run by members of the civil service.

Head of state

Prime minister

Cabinet

Agencies

Government in parliament

Local government

Finance

Economy

Taxation

Annual budget

Issues

Corruption

Separation of powers

See also

References