The National Citizen Party (NCP) will submit its initial reform proposal to the National Consensus Commission of the interim government on Sunday.

In the proposal, NCP will suggest lowering the minimum age for voting to 16 years and setting the minimum age for parliamentary candidates at 23 years.

At a press conference on Saturday at 11:00am at NCP’s central office in Rupayan Tower, Banglamotor, Dhaka, Sarwar Tushar, Coordinator of the NCP Reform Coordination Committee and Joint Convener of NCP, shared these details.

The press conference said that NCP believes the voting age should be 16 years.

Sarwar Tushar said: “The reason is that this movement has been described globally as a Gen-Z uprising. In post-uprising Bangladesh, the upcoming election will take place, yet Gen-Z will not have the right to vote simply because they are under 18. NCP does not find this logical. Tomorrow, NCP will propose allowing voting from 16 years of age.”

He added: “The Constitutional Reform Commission suggests setting the minimum age for parliamentary candidates at 21 years. NCP considers this too low and proposes raising it to 23 years.”

On Sunday at 2:00pm, an NCP delegation will visit the National Consensus Commission office to submit the reform proposal, Sarwar Tushar confirmed.

He mentioned that following the submission, discussions will take place between the NCP and the Consensus Commission.

He said: “The Consensus Commission has already started discussions with parties that have submitted their reform proposals. After Eid, the commission may hold talks with NCP regarding its stance.”

Currently, the minimum age for parliamentary candidates is 25 years. The Constitutional Reform Commission has proposed lowering it to 21 years, while NCP suggests setting it at 23 years.