No scope of election campaign before Dec 18: EC

The Election Commission (EC) in a directive today said that there is scope of carry out election campaign in favor of any aspirant before December 18 as there is no opportunity for anyone to be candidate legally before the day.

"The campaigning period for the candidates has been fixed from December 18 this year to 8am on January 5, 2024," said an EC press release today.

Some of the dignitaries are making "concocted statements" in various electronic media talk shows or newspapers that the EC is indifferent in enforcing the electoral code of conduct, which can mislead the people, it said, adding, "It may negatively affect the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections by damaging public trust on the Election Commission as a constitutional body, which is not expected at all".

There is a rules titled on ‍‍`Code of Conduct of Political Parties and Candidates in the parliamentary elections, 2008‍‍` to regulate election campaign for general and by-polls of the parliament, the release said, adding that according to Section 5 of rules, political parties, nominated candidates or independent candidates have to follow the instructions mentioned in the Section 6 to 14 of the rules.

According to the rules candidates will not get more than 21 days to carryout campaign, it said.

Election campaign can be carried out after finalizing the candidate list following scrutiny of the nomination papers and distribution of election symbols by returning officers and from that time the electoral code of conduct will come into effect for the candidates, the release said.

The release noted that before 21 days of election, any kind of election campaign by any candidate or on behalf of the candidate is prohibited as per the Section 12 of the rules.