Nomination submission deadline closes for Bangladesh elections

The submission deadline for nomination papers for Bangladesh's upcoming national election closed at 5:00 pm today (29 December), with most candidates filing their papers on time.

Most of the aspirants submitted their nomination papers today as only 166 nomination papers were filed till Sunday to contest the 13th parliamentary election scheduled to be held on 12 February 2026.

However, the number of aspirants who submitted nomination papers to contest from the country's 300 constituencies will be informed by the Election Commission once the compilation is done following gleaning the data from the 69 returning officers in the election.

According to the EC's Central Coordination Committee, a total of 3,144 nomination papers were collected to run the polls from the country's 300 constituencies till Sunday after the election schedule announced on December 11 last.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on 11 December announced the schedule to hold the 13th parliament election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on 12 February next.

According to the election schedule, the deadline for the submission of nomination paper is 29 December, while the scrutiny of nomination paper is on December 30-January 4 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is 20 January.

The election campaign will start on 22 January and continue till 48 hours before the balloting period (7:30am on 10 February).

This time the Commission appointed 69 returning officers –two divisional commissioners (Dhaka and Chattogram), three regional election officers (Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna) and 64 district deputy commissioners.

The collection and submission of nomination papers started on 12 December, a day after the announcement of the election schedule.