With all the political parties and coalitions finalising their candidates, the official campaigns are set to start on Monday (Dec 10) after candidates are allotted polls symbols.
On Sunday (Dec 9) when the deadline to withdraw nominations ended, the two major political parties— the ruling Awami League and the BNP have submitted letters to the Election Commission detailing the lists of candidates.
The Awami League’s letter, allowing 272 candidates to use the boat logo — 258 on the parties ticket while the 14 others are from its allies in the 14-Party alliance and the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh.
Five candidates from the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh led by Rashed Khan Mennon are contesting with boat, three from the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) faction led by Hasanul Haq Inu, two from the Tarikat Federation, one from the Sharif Nurul Ambia-led JaSaD faction and three from the Bikalpadhara.
Two other candidates of the Awami League’s ally the Jatiya Party-JP (Monju) will contest with their own bicycle symbol.
The ruling party has left the 26 other seats for the candidates of its key ally in the Grand Alliance - the Jatiya Party, according to the list the Awami League sent to the EC.
The Awami League has sent a letter to the Election Commission allowing 272 candidates to use the boat logo.
The candidates include 258 from the ruling party while the 14 others are from its allies in the 14-Party alliance and the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh.
Five candidates from the Workers Party are contesting with boat, three from the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal or JaSaD led by Hasanul Haq Inu, two from the Tarikat Federation, one from the Bangladesh JaSaD and three from the Bikalpadhara.
Two other candidates of the Awami League’s ally the Jatiya Party-JP will contest with their own bicycle symbol.
The ruling party has left the 26 other seats for the candidates of its key ally in the Grand Alliance - the Jatiya Party, according to the list the Awami League sent to the EC.
The HM Ershad-led party, in a statement sent to the media earlier in the day, said that it will be contesting 29 seats from the Grand Alliance and will run candidates in 132 constituencies separate from the coalition.
Jatiya Party candidates are contesting the Dec 30 election with their own plough logo.
Awami League’s rival, the BNP has floated candidates in 242 constituencies while left the remaining for the 14 allies in the Gano Forum chief Kamal Hossain-led Jatiya Oikya Front and the 20-party Alliance it leads.
Among its allies in the newly-formed Oikya Front, Gano Forum got seven seats while ASM Abdur Rab-led Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), Mahmudur Rahman Manna’s Nagorik Oikya and Abdul Kader Siddiqui’s Krishak Sramik Janata League got four each.
Meanwhile, in the 20-party Alliance, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) got 5 seats, Jamiat e Ulama e Islam Bangladesh 3, Khelafat Mojlish and Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar) two each while one each for Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Jatiya Party (BJP), NPP, PPB and Labour Party.
Another 22 seats have been given to candidates, who are members of the now-banned Jamaat-e Islami.
In the letter submitted to the Commission on Sunday (Dec 9), the BNP said altogether 298 candidates will contest the election with its paddy sheaf logo, including 242 of its own leaders.
With the final list of candidates running on party tickets available, the election officials will allocate logo to the candidates on Monday, after which the official campaigning will kick-off.
"Electoral symbols will be allocated among candidates on Monday. Immediately after the symbol allocation, the formal electioneering can be launched," Election Commission’s Joint Secretary SM Asaduzzaman told news agency UNB.
No candidate can spend more than Tk 10 per voter during the electioneering, but the total election expenditures, including the party's donation, of a candidate cannot exceed the limit of Tk 2.5 million, he added.
Aspirants can only use black-white posters of the maximum 60cmX45 cm size, which have to be hung, not pasted on walls.
In case of banner, the highest size is 3X1 metre as per the electoral code of conduct.
The Commission has already deployed 600 judicial magistrates and nearly 1,000 executive magistrates to punish the violation of the electoral code of conduct during the campaign.
A total of 3,065 candidates – 2,567 from all the 39 registered political parties and 498 independent ones – filed nomination papers to contest the election from 300 constituencies in the country.
The returning officers, during scrutiny on Dec 2, cleared 2,279 candidates and trashed nominations of 786 aspirants.
However, 243 candidates’ nominations were reinstated during appeals disposed of by the Election Commission.