Election Commission rules out 'Shapla' as electoral symbol
The announcement comes amid growing interest from political parties seeking to secure the ‘Shapla’ as their designated symbol.
The Election Commission has decided to exclude the 'Shapla' from the official list of electoral symbols, effectively barring any political party from using it in forthcoming elections.
Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud confirmed the decision to The Business Standard tonight (9 July), saying, "It has been decided in principle that Shapla will not be included as an electoral symbol."
The announcement comes amid growing interest from political parties seeking to secure the 'Shapla' as their designated symbol.
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Among those vying for it is the National Citizen Party (NCP), which formally applied for registration with the EC on 22 June. The party listed 'Shapla' as its top preference, followed by 'Pen' and 'Mobile Phone'.
Nagorik Oikya, currently registered under the 'Kettle' symbol, has also made a bid to change its symbol.
On 2 July, after a meeting with the chief election commissioner, the party's Organisational Secretary Sakib Anwar told reporters that a formal request had been submitted on 17 June to switch to either 'Shapla' or 'Doel'.
When asked about competing claims over the same symbol, Commissioner Masud told TBS, "That's a matter for later – as of now, it's not included in the official schedule."
Under current EC regulations, only symbols listed in the official schedule may be allocated to political parties.
Currently, Shapla is not among the 69 electoral symbols that were approved in the last general election.
Of these, 50 were for registered parties, while five belonged to parties whose registrations have been suspended or cancelled. The remaining 19 were available for independent candidates.
On 4 June, Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazl Md Sanaullah stated the commission plans to increase the number of electoral symbols from 69 to 100.
"There is an official procedure involved in doing this. So it will take some time," he said.
