The National Citizens Party (NCP) has formally declined to choose any electoral symbol from the list provided by the Election Commission (EC) and has instead reiterated its demand for the inclusion of the ‘Shapla’ (water lily) symbol in the official registry.
In a letter emailed to the EC secretary on Tuesday, NCP convener Md Nahid Islam urged the commission to amend the electoral conduct rules to include “Shapla,” “White Shapla,” or “Red Shapla” in the list of approved symbols. He expressed hope that one of these symbols would eventually be allocated to the party.
Although the NCP recently received official registration, the EC has stated that the “Shapla” symbol cannot be allotted since it is not currently listed in the Election Conduct Rules. The EC has also previously decided not to assign the “Shapla” symbol to any political party.
The EC is in the process of granting registration to two new political parties ahead of the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, one of which is the NCP. The commission has also issued a public notice seeking objections, if any, regarding the party’s registration.
As part of that process, the EC sent a letter to the NCP on September 30, asking it to select an electoral symbol from a list of 50 options within a week.
When contacted, NCP joint member secretary Zahirul Islam Musa said, “We have sent our reply to the EC secretary via email, signed by our convener. Since the secretary is currently abroad, we did not meet in person.”
He confirmed that the NCP rejected all 50 symbols provided by the EC.
“We have declined the list and made it clear that our symbol will be ‘Shapla’. We’ve requested an amendment to include the ‘Shapla’ symbol in the list. Once that’s done, we’ll select from the available samples,” Musa added.
In its letter, the party also attached seven different designs of the proposed Shapla symbol for the EC’s consideration.
