Bangladesh Republic Party (BRP) on Sunday officially received registration as a new political party with the ‘Elephant’ as its electoral symbol, following a court directive.

The Election Commission (EC) handed over the registration certificate to the party’s chairman KM Abu Hanif Hridoy.

According to a gazette notification signed by EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, the registration was granted in compliance with the High Court Division’s order dated July 23 last.

The registration was made under the provisions of the Representation of the People Order (RPO).

The EC has reserved the ‘Elephant’ as the official party symbol for the party with registration number 57.

The party’s central office is located at 88/1 Shahid Faruk Road (3rd Floor), South Jatrabari, Dhaka-1204, and it has been registered as a political party until further orders, said the notification.

BRP Chairman KM Abu Hanif Hridoy in his reaction told the media that this is a victory for democracy. “I have received justice,” he said.

On September 25 last, Bangladesh Labour Party, known as an ally of BNP in its simultaneous movement, received official registration as a political party from the Election Commission with the electoral symbol ‘pineapple,’ following a High Court order.

The registration system was introduced in 2008 before the 9th parliamentary election.

A total of 57 parties have so far obtained registration, but five of them—Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Freedom Party, Oikyabodha Nagorik Andolan, PDP and Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (Jagpa)—later lost their status due to different grounds and court orders. But Jamaat has recently got back their registration following the court order.

Besides, the registration process for new parties is underway ahead of the 13th parliamentary election.

On September 30 last, the EC Secretary hinted that the commission initially took a decision to award registrations to two parties -- National Citizen Party (NCP) and Bangladesh Jatiya League – as they have fulfilled conditions.

“We received applications from 143 parties seeking registration. After scrutiny, we shortlisted 22 parties for further field-level inquiries. After reviewing this information (gleaned from field-level), our position is that two parties have preliminarily met the conditions. The two parties are National Citizen Party (NCP) and Bangladesh Jatiya League,” he said.