Staff Reporter:
Another political party named Bangladesh Congress has urged the Election Commission (EC) to allocate ‘Water Lily’ to them as symbol to the party if it is included in the list of electoral symbols as it was de-nied the symbol during its registration six years ago.
Amid the National Citizen Party-NCP’s strong demand to have ‘Water Lily’ allocated as its electoral symbol, Bangladesh Congress on Monday placed the demand in a letter submitted before the Election Commission, addressing the Chief Election Commissioner. Necessary documents supporting its claims were also attached to the letter.
“In recent times, several political parties have demanded the ‘Water Lily’ as their electoral symbol. In this context, if the national emblem of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh — the Water Lily — is al-lowed as a party symbol, Bangladesh Congress should be recognised as the first claimant and given pri-ority,” the party said in the letter.
Since its establishment in 2013, Bangladesh Congress has been using the ‘Water Lily’ as its party symbol in all documents and then sought it to be allocated for the party during its registration application in 2017, but the Election Commission told it that the ‘Water Lily’ is the national emblem that can’t be a party symbol.
Later, when the registration of Bangladesh Congress was granted (in 2019) in line with the judgment of the Supreme Court, the party demanded the ‘Book’ as symbol, but Bangladesh Congress was forced to accept the ‘Green Coconut’ as symbol as it was in the list of symbols, the letter reads.
The NCP Chief Coordinator said they believe there is no legal barrier to include Water Lily in the list of electoral symbols, adding that there is the hand of an “invisible force” that obstructs the process.
On September 25 last, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin told reporters that Nagorik Oikya, led by Mahmudur Rahman Manna, first applied for the ‘water lily’ symbol and then NCP applied for the same symbol.
Manna said they will protest if the EC allocates ‘Water Lily’ to NCP, but they won’t go to the court challenging the EC’s decision.
