As many as 1,841 candidates including 96 independent contenders are contesting the 11th Parliamentary Election slated for Dec 30, Election Commission (EC) sources said.
The EC’s election conducting wing finalised the candidature on Monday (Dec 10) night after scrutinising the data sent by all 64 districts’ returning officers.
Sunday (Dec 9) was the last day for the aspirants to pull out of the race.
As many as 3,065 people filled nomination papers to contest the polls with 786 were denied by the returning officers.
Nearly 250 people of the rejected got back their candidature after moving to the EC’s and the High Court.
Of the 300 parliamentary seats, Cumilla-13 sees the maximum 15 contenders while 15 seats have minimum three candidates each.
On Monday, The EC allocated electoral symbols to the candidates. It preserves some 64 symbols including that of 39 registered parties’.
Rest of the symbols were allocated to the independent candidates.
Candidates can start polls campaigns soon after they receive the electoral symbol.
Campaigns can be run for next 19 days till Dec 28 and must be stopped 32 hours before polls day voting begins.
This year, over 104.2 million voters will cast the ballot at 40,183 polling centres across Bangladesh.
As many as 390 candidates contended the 10th Parliamentary Election in 2014 from 147 constituencies with another 153 seats went uncontested.