Election Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz on Wednesday said the election code of conduct will be changed again if the two major political parties reach a consensus over the election-time government.
The Election Commission is now amending the parliamentary election code of conduct for political parties and candidates in line with the current Constitutional provision, he told reporters at his EC secretariat office.
“Now we’re changing the code of conduct as per the Constitution. If there’s a consensus (over different type of the polls-time government), we’ll change the code in the country’s greater interest.”
The Commission will complete drafting of the code within a couple of days, he hoped.
The drafted code will be uploaded on EC’s website and will be sent to registered political parties seeking opinion over it so that a level-playing field for all candidates could be ensured in the election, he noted.
The EC started drafting the code on Monday considering that the election will be held under a political government.
Replying to a query, he said the schedule for the parliamentary elections will be announced in due time.
Turning to controversial BNF that applied for registration with the EC, the commissioner categorically said no new party will be given any polls symbol which is similar to those of the registered political parties.
One of the 140 listed election symbols will be allocated to Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF), Shah Nawaz added.
BNP opposes the registration of BNF as the newly formed political party sought ‘Sheaf of Wheat’ as electoral symbol which looks almost similar to BNP’s ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ and uses BNP’s logo, Ziaur Rahman’s portrait and his 19-point programme in its posters.
Source: UNB Connect
