NN Online:
Nasiruddin Patwari, Chief Coordinator of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has declared that the party is firmly committed to securing the ‘Shapla’ (Water Lily) as its electoral symbol, insisting there is no legal barrier to obtaining it.
“There is no alternative to Shapla. If any obstacle arises, we’ll face it politically,” Patwari stated on Sunday after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. The NCP delegation also included regional organizers Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam.
However, the Election Commission (EC) has excluded the ‘Shapla’ symbol from its final list of electoral symbols. While 46 new symbols have been added to the earlier list of 69, raising the total to 115, ‘Shapla’ did not make the cut—effectively barring any party from using it. NCP leaders have condemned the move, calling it “biased” and “farcical.”
According to EC sources, a committee had initially proposed 150 symbols, later reduced to 115 and sent to the Ministry of Law for vetting. ‘Shapla’ was dropped in the final version.
The NCP applied for party registration on June 20, choosing ‘Shapla’ as its first preference, and listing ‘Pen’ and ‘Mobile Phone’ as alternatives. Both alternatives are included in the approved symbol list, making them possible options for the NCP.
Notably, Nagorik Oikya, led by Mahmudur Rahman, had also applied for the ‘Shapla’ symbol earlier on April 17. Both parties have held several meetings with the EC over the issue.
On July 9, the EC finalized and submitted the revised list of 115 electoral symbols as part of updates to the National Parliamentary Election Conduct Rules, officially excluding the ‘Shapla’ from use.
