The Election Commission (EC) has made a policy decision not to include the “shapla” (water lily) in its schedule of approved electoral symbols, effectively barring any political party from using Bangladesh’s national flower as their emblem.
This decision directly affects the National Citizen Party (NCP), which recently applied for party registration while requesting the shapla as its symbol. In their application, NCP had listed the shapla alongside a “pen” and “mobile phone” as preferred symbols.
The development comes as Nagorik Oikya, another political group that had initially sought the shapla but was allotted a “kettle” instead, has renewed its demand for the shapla.
Following a July 2 meeting with the chief election commissioner, Nagorik Oikya Organising Secretary Sakib Anwar told reporters: “When we received registration, we didn’t get our preferred symbol. On June 17, we applied to change our symbol, listing ‘shapla’ and the ‘magpie robin’ as our choices.”
Election Commissioner Abdul Rahman Miah confirmed the policy decision to journalists on Wednesday, stating: “A principled decision has been made not to include shapla in the electoral symbol schedule.”
He explained that while no specific law protects national flowers or fruits, the commission considered the dignity of national symbols and precedents where previous requests for the Shapla had been denied.
The EC’s current symbol schedule contains 69 approved emblems. With parliamentary elections approaching, the commission plans to expand the pool to over 100 symbols for both parties and independent candidates.