Dhaka, Sep 24 The National Citizen Party (NCP) of Bangladesh has issued a stern warning regarding the next year’s general elections, hours after the Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh announced that the party wouldn’t be allocated the “Shapla” (water lily) symbol.
Sarjis Alam, chief organiser of the NCP, took to his social media, stating, “Since there’s no legal barrier, the NCP’s symbol must be the Sapla. There is no other option. Otherwise, we will also see how the elections take place and who dreams of gaining power and enjoying the spoils.”
Criticising the EC, he further said, “The party (NCP) had clearly requested the shapla symbol at the time of its initial registration application, so whose responsibility was it to add shapla to the list of electoral symbols?”
Alam questioned whether the EC officials had been “sitting idly” all this time, merely “watching a drama”, or whether, despite claiming to be an independent institution, they had been taking instructions from another body, party, or agency.
This came as EC Secretary Akhter Ahmed on Tuesday stated that the ‘Shapla’ cannot be allocated as a party symbol as it is not included in the EC’s reserved symbol list, which consists of 115 electoral symbols.
Earlier, on Monday, a delegation from the NCP met with the Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin.
Addressing journalists at the EC building in Dhaka, following the meeting, the party’s chief coordinator, Nasiruddin Patwari, said, “We have learned that conspiratorial actions are being taken regarding these symbols. The NCP’s registration must be made with any one of these three (Shalpa, white Shalpa, red Shalpa) symbols, and this cannot be altered.”
Bangladesh is facing growing uncertainty and political turmoil ahead of next year’s election.
These student leaders earlier collaborated with Muhammad Yunus and several other radical political parties to overthrow the democratically elected Awami League government led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
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