Only 16 registered political parties are going to contest the January-5 national election if Jatiya Party, led by HM Ershad, boycotts it.
The Election Commission Secretariat statistics provided immediately after the expiry of Dec-2 deadline for the submission of nomination papers showed that possible candidates of 19 registered political parties out of 40 submitted their nomination papers.
“It’s not 19, but 17 political parties, including Jatiya Party, are now contesting the election,” said a joint secretary of the EC secretariat on Sunday seeking anonymity.
Field-level election officials mistakenly wrote JSD in stead of Jasad-Inu, Bangladesh Jatiya Party-BJP (Andaleeb Rahman Partha) in place of Jatiya Party, he added.
No candidate from JSD (Rob) and BJP submitted nomination papers to contest the Jan- 5 election. “Now the number of participating political parties will come down to 16, if Jatiya Party boycotts it,” he noted.
The 16 registered political parties are Awami League, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasad), Bangladesh Workers Party, Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF), Jatiya Party (JP), Ganatantrik Party, Ganofront, Islamic Front Bangladesh, Khelafat Majlish, Bangladesh Islamic Front, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Bangladesh NAP and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Basad).
After the scrutiny of nomination papers, the returning officers found 847 candidates valid across the country. Of them, 33 Awami League candidates are going to be elected unopposed as there is single valid nomination papers in the same number of constituencies out of 300.
If Jatiya Party candidates withdraw their candidature within the December 13 deadline, some 150 candidates will be elected uncontested.
In the 2008 national election, 38 registered political parties out of the then 39 joined the country’s ninth general election, while 1567 candidates were there in the 2008 election race.
According to the EC statistics, 14 political parties contested the 1st parliamentary elections in 1973, while it was 29 parties in the 1979 general election, 28 in the 1986, eight in 1988, 75 in 1991, 41 in the one-sided 1996 Feb election, 81 parties 1996 and 54 in the 2001 election.
Source: UNBConnect
