The Election Commission (EC) itself will allocate a symbol to the National Citizen Party (NCP) if the party fails to choose one from the EC’s list, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said on Monday.
“I have no information to speak about any alternative proposal different from what the Election Commission’s earlier position was on this matter. The Commission had said it will allocate an election symbol on its own consideration,” he told reporters at a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital.
The EC Secretary made the remark while replying to a question about the Commission’s position regarding the ‘Water Lily’ symbol sought by NCP.
He said a notification would be published (in newspapers) about the political parties that are considered as eligible for registration, along with the symbols allocated for them.
Roadmap Progress
About the progress of implementing the electoral roadmap, he said around 90 to 95 percent of the Commission’s action plans have already been executed. “If two pending tasks are completed this week, the implementation rate will reach 100 percent,” he said.
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Akhtar Ahmed said the two pending tasks are the registration of political parties and the registration of election observer organisations. “Yes, we are slightly behind schedule in these two areas as per our action plan,” he said.
Regarding political party registration, he said the EC has initially identified 22 parties as potentially eligible and collected additional information from the field about them. “InshaAllah we’ll complete this process within this week,” he said.
About the second issue, the EC Secretary said the Commission will complete the registration process of the local election observation organisations by this week as well, disposing of complaints over the organisations.
He said the delay should not be seen as a matter of concern. This slight lag creates urgency for the commission to complete the tasks soon. “But we think there is no reason to worry,” he added.
Replying to a question about a possible referendum, the EC senior secretary said the Commission has not yet received any official proposal or information in this regard. “There’s no information on any referendum at the Election Commission as of now. Since no data or proposal has reached us, I think it would be inappropriate to make any assumption on this matter,” he said.