DHAKA, Oct 02, 2025 (BSS) - The Election Commission (EC) has sent a letter to the National Citizen Party (NCP), asking it to choose an election symbol from the EC's reserved list of 50 symbols and submit the selection to the EC in writing by October 7.

The directive, issued on September 30, was sent by Md Rafiqul Islam, deputy secretary of the EC's election assistance branch, to NCP Convenor Md Nahid Islam.

EC said that NCP, in its application, mentioned water lily, pen, and mobile phone as its preferred symbols in order of choice, later modifying "shapla" to "laal shapla" (red water lily) or "shada shapla" (white water lily).

However, the EC mentioned that under Rule 9(1) of the Election Conduct Rules, 2008, the shapla symbol is not included in the list of permissible symbols.

The EC further said in the letter that under the Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the Election Conduct Rules, a political party is allotted one of the prescribed symbols for all its nominated candidates, and that symbol remains reserved for the party unless the party later opts for a different one from the approved list.

Along with the letter, the EC provided NCP with the complete list of available symbols, from which it must select one to proceed with the next step of the registration process.

The options include bed, ostrich, brinjal, watermelon, prawn, butterfly, balloon, football, bucket, banana, mobile phone, duck, and helicopter, among others.