The 12-party alliance on Monday submitted a letter to the Election Commission asking for keeping the provision of allowing an alliance candidate to run the national election with the symbol of any component of the political coalition.
"We, on behalf of the 12-party alliance, object to the amendment to the Representation of the People Order (RPO) that oblige for an alliance candidate to use their own party symbol even if they are elected in an alliance. This change is unacceptable to us in any way,” said the letter.
According to the article 20 of the proposed RPO, in the case of a combination of two or more registered political parties who have agreed to set up joint candidates for election, the symbol reserved for the political party to which the candidate belongs may be allotted.
The Council of Advisers has recently approved the draft Representation of People (Amendment) Ordinance 2025.
“We’re strongly protesting this change,” said the 12-party alliance, in the letter.
The 12 parties of the alliance include Jatiya Party (headed by Mostafa Jamal Haider), LDP (headed by Shahadat Hossain Selim), Jatiya Dal (Syed Ihsanul Huda), Bangladesh Jamiyate Ulamaye Islam (Mohiuddin Ekram), Bikalpadhara Bangladesh (Nurul Amin Bepari), Islami Oikyajot (Abdur Rakib), Bangladesh Labour Party (Mohammad Faruque), Bangladesh Kalyan Party (Shamsuddin Parvej), Naya Ganatantrik Party (Abdul Mannan), Islamic Party (MA Kashem), Progotisheel Jatiyatabadi Dal (Firoj Mohammad Liton) and United Liberal Party (Aminul Islam).