Staff Reporter:
The Advisory Council has given final and in principle approval to the draft of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (RPO), which scraps the provision of being elected unopposed and restores the “no vote” option for single-candidate constituencies.
The approval came at the weekly meeting of the Council held at the Chief Adviser’s Office in the capital on Thursday, with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in the chair.
In the afternoon, Law Adviser Asif Nazrul briefed the media on the details of the meeting.
Announcing the reinstatement of the “no vote” option in the RPO amendment, the adviser said that a provision for the “no vote” has been introduced for elections with only one candidate.
“You surely remember the fake election of 2014. In 153 or 154 constituencies, there was only one candidate — it was a staged election. Such elections must never happen again.”
He said, “If there is only one candidate, voters in that constituency will have the option to cast a ‘no vote’—indicating that the candidate is not acceptable to them. In that case, a fresh election will be held there.”
The RPO amendment will be enforced in the upcoming 13th parliamentary election, slated to be held in February 2026.
Earlier, the “no vote” was introduced in the December 2008 general election and repealed by the Sheikh Hasina-led government in early 2009.
