National Citizen Party (NCP) has held a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin, seeking clarity over the party’s preferred election symbol, Shapla (water lily), which was excluded from the Election Commission’s latest schedule.

A delegation led by NCP Chief Coordinator Nasir Uddin Patwari met with the CEC at his office in the Election Building on Sunday (July 13), amid ongoing disputes over the allocation of symbols.

The meeting comes days after the Election Commission, on Wednesday (July 9), decided to reserve 115 symbols in the draft schedule of election symbols, submitted the same day to the Law Ministry for vetting. Notably, the Shapla symbol was not included in that list.

The NCP had previously requested the Shapla symbol in its registration application submitted on June 22. However, another political group, the Mahmudur Rahman-led Nagorik Oikya, had also sought the same symbol on April 17.

Both parties have since met the Election Commission multiple times to press their claim for the symbol, leading to a standoff. Amid this contention, the EC ultimately decided to omit the Shapla symbol from the schedule.

Explaining the rationale, Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah said: “Two parties have asked for this symbol. Besides, considering some other aspects, we have decided not to include Shapla in the schedule.”

Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Machud earlier stated that Shapla is considered a national symbol, which influenced the decision to exclude it from the approved list of election symbols.

According to EC officials, registered political parties are assigned symbols from a predefined schedule included in the National Assembly Election Conduct Rules. Following legal vetting, the Election Commission will issue an official notification to finalize the list.

There are currently 51 registered political parties. The remaining reserved symbols will be distributed among independent candidates and newly registered parties.

SMS/