Election Commission (EC) Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Thursday clarified that there is a difference between the ‘Water Lily’ symbol sought by the National Citizen Party (NCP) and the newly incorporated ‘Water Lily Bud’ (Shapla Koli) in the revised list of 119 electoral symbols.

“There is a difference between Water Lily and Water Lily Bud. I think there is no need to explain it further,” he said during a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban following an EC meeting with top government officials.

Earlier in the day, the EC released a revised list of 119 electoral symbols, incorporating ‘Water Lily Bud’ (Shapla Koli). According to the revised schedule, 20 new symbols have been added to the list, while 16 old ones have been dropped.

“We have excluded 16 symbols and included new ones, bringing the total to 119 symbols in the schedule,” the EC Secretary said.

Responding to a question on whether the Water Lily Bud inclusion has a link to any party demand, he said the commission considered the matter independently. “It is not related to any demand. For your information, the political party NCP requested the Water Lily symbol,” he added.

When asked why the EC revised the symbol list for the second time now, Akhtar Ahmed said, “Some negative opinions about certain symbols have come to our notice. The commission felt it was necessary to revise the list. Since some adverse criticisms arose, we removed certain symbols and added new ones. The list is not fixed; the commission can take decisions when controversies arise.”

Replying to a question if the EC is independent in taking its decisions, he reaffirmed, “It is certainly an independent institution.”

Regarding new party registration, he said election commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker is now reviewing the information collected from the field. We will finalize it (complete the new political party registration process) within a day next week.”

NCP insists on ‘Shapla’ symbol, rejects ‘Shapla Kali’

NCP Chief Coordinator Nasiruddin Patwary, in an instant reaction on his facebook post, said it is unfortunate that there is an attempt to allocate ‘Water Lily Bud’ for NCP instead of their first choice, the ‘Water Lily’ symbol.

NCP Joint Convener Khaled Saifullah in a facebook post blasted the EC for inclusion of Water Lily Bud instead of their desired Water Lily symbol in the list, but said they will inform their party about the symbol issue.“Water Lily is our desire. We’ll inform you by thinking about Water Lily Bud,” he said.

Answering a question about the demand placed by eight political parties for a referendum in November, he said the commission has listened to their demands but the government will decide the timing of the referendum.

The 20 newly included symbols are: Camel, Comb, Torchlight, Table Lamp, Tractor, Dressing Table, Lock, Double-decker Bus, Turban, Water Tap, Palanquin, Fruit Basket, Baby Taxi, Electric Bulb, Motorcycle, Staircase, Sunflower, Railway Engine, and Handshake.

The 16 dropped symbols are: Banana, Cot, Ostrich, Charger Light, Tiffin Carrier, Drum, Watermelon, Refrigerator, Flute, Bench, Brinjal, Balloon, Bottle Gourd, Conch Shell, Suitcase, and Flower Pot.

Earlier, the EC had published a list of 115 symbols that did not include ‘Water Lily Bud’, despite repeated demands from NCP to allocate the ‘Water Lily’ symbol since the new party applied for registration.

The NCP has long been demanding for allocating one symbol from three ones --Water Lily, White Water Lily and Red Water Lily.