The student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) in Bangladesh has issued a stern warning: they will disrupt the upcoming February elections if the Election Commission (EC) continues to deny them their preferred electoral symbol.
The NCP emerged from “Students against Discrimination” (SAD), the powerful movement behind last year’s “July Uprising” that led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and the appointment of Professor Muhammad Yunus as Chief Adviser.
“The Election Commission failed to provide any valid legal reason for refusing us the shapla (water lily) symbol, so we stand firm on our demand,” stated Nahid Islam, NCP convenor, according to newspaper reports Wednesday, following the EC’s announcement.
Islam mentioned that the NCP would unveil its “final response” after the EC formalizes its decision. Meanwhile, Sarjis Alam, the party’s chief coordinator for northern Bangladesh, explicitly threatened to bring the elections to a standstill if their request is not granted.
Alam took to social media, declaring, “As there’s no legal impediment, the NCP absolutely must receive the ‘shapla’ as its symbol; there’s no alternative. If we don’t get it, we will ensure that no election takes place and no one even dreams of seizing power.”
However, the EC’s senior secretary, Akhter Ahmed, clarified in a Tuesday media briefing that the NCP’s requested symbol could not be allocated because it “is not present in the approved list of electoral symbols as per current regulations.”
He elaborated, “The shapla is not among our 115 designated electoral symbols. Our rules clearly state that political parties must select a symbol from this official, approved list.”
It is worth noting that the “shapla” is, in fact, the national emblem of Bangladesh.
Earlier, Nasiruddin Patwary, another NCP chief coordinator, spearheaded the party’s delegation to the EC for registration, insisting that the party must be registered with the “shapla” symbol.
When questioned on how they planned to obtain a symbol not on the EC’s updated list, he responded by stating that amendments to the list could be introduced at any point.
Patwary further expressed the party’s confidence, projecting wins in approximately 150 out of 300 constituencies. Their nominees reportedly include former army officers, alongside women, farmers, and workers who actively participated in the July uprising.
However, many political analysts are predicting a challenging electoral future for the NCP, especially after their candidates suffered overwhelming losses in recent student union elections at two prominent public universities: Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University.
In these university elections, the Islami Chhaita Shibir, backed by Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, secured the majority of positions. The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, also faced a significant defeat, despite managing to become the second-largest student group in the central student union polls across both institutions.