ISAS Briefs

Bangladesh is a democratic republic with a unicameral parliament called Jatiya Sangsad in Bengali and 'House of the Nation' in English. The 300 members of parliament are directly elected by universal adult suffrage for five years. The head of state is the president, who is indirectly elected by members of the parliament. The president appoints the leader of the majority party as prime minister and head of government. Bangladesh has a unitary form of government in which all of the governing power resides in a centrali s ed government. For administrative convenience , the country is divided into six d ivisions ; and each d ivision is subdivided into z ilas or d istricts and u pazilas or s ub - di stricts. There are 64 administrative districts ; and below the district level there are 487 upazilas or sub - districts.