Staff Reporter :
The 12-party alliance on Monday submitted a letter to the Election Commission, urging that the provision allowing alliance candidates to contest national elections using the symbol of any partner party be retained.
“We, on behalf of the 12-party alliance, oppose the proposed amendment to the Representation of the People Order (RPO), which requires alliance candidates to use only their own party symbols even when contesting under an alliance. This change is completely unacceptable to us,” the letter said.
Under Article 20 of the proposed RPO, when two or more registered political parties form an electoral alliance to field joint candidates, the symbol reserved for the political party to which a candidate belongs may be allocated to them.
The Council of Advisers has recently approved the draft Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025.
“We strongly protest this amendment,” the 12-party alliance reiterated in its letter.
The alliance comprises the following parties: 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 (M.A. Kashem), Progotisheel Jatiyatabadi Dal (Firoj Mohammad Liton), and United Liberal Party (Aminul Islam).
