New Parties Get 2 More Months to Register with Election Commission

It has been decided to register the new party before the upcoming general elections. For this, the Election Commission (EC) had fixed the time till August 29. That time has been extended by another two months.

This time was extended at the request of Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, the founder and trustee of Gonoshasthaya Kendra.

He went to the EC on Wednesday (August 24) and requested an extension.

EC Joint Secretary SM Asaduzzaman has given this information. He said, two months has been extended. As a result, applications can be made till October 29.

Election Commission officials say there is a provision to invite applications for registration of new parties before every parliamentary election. Accordingly, on May 26, the parties were invited to submit applications and the time was fixed till August 29.

Meanwhile, according to EC sources, as many as 10 teams have submitted applications for registration so far. Among them, two parties have submitted applications. One of them is the Bangladesh National Republican Party, the other is the Bangabandhu Dustho O Protibondhi Unnayan Parishad.

The EC had issued a public notice on October 30, 2017 for the registration of the last party. The time was then given until December 31 that year. 76 political parties applied for registration. KM Nurul Huda Commission rejected all the applications due to various reasons. Later, Nationalist Democratic Movement-NDM and Bangladesh Congress got registration by court order.

Five years before that, in 2013, when the public notification was issued, 43 parties applied. At that time, the Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad Commission registered the Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) and the Shangskritik Mukti Jote.

During the caretaker government supported by the army. The commission headed by ATM Shamsul Huda registered parties for the first time in the country in 2008. At that time 117 teams applied. After verification, 39 teams got registration. In total, the EC has registered a total of 44 teams in the last 14 years.

Among them, the registration of five parties was also canceled due to failure to fulfill the conditions and on the order of the court. As a result, there are currently 39 political parties registered with the EC.

The five parties whose registrations have been canceled so far are Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Oikyaboddho Nagorik Andolan, Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Jatiya Gonotantrik Party (JaGPa).