A most-watched election process picks into its culmination as symbols to parties and independent contenders will be allocated today before campaign trails kick off tomorrow.
The Election Commission (EC) will allocate the voting symbols today as the deadline for candidature withdrawal was over Tuesday.
This step formally clears the way for full-scale campaigning, which begins Thursday (tomorrow), in the run-up to Bangladesh's most crucial polls destined to bring about major constitutional and government-structure changes attuned to a regime-changing mass uprising.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) hosted a conference Tuesday at the Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka's Agargaon area to apprise different technical aspects of postal-voting system to the political parties, candidates and other stakeholders.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A M M Nasir Uddin said they introduced postal ballot for the first time acknowledging different types of limitations and challenges.
Even representatives of foreign missions highly appreciate the move, saying that Bangladesh's name could be written in world history upon successful implementation of the postal-ballot system.
"When someone (foreign representative) pays a visit to us, they say Bangladesh's name could be recorded in world history if you could successfully materialise this," he told journalists about its merits, apparently to dispel recent scepticism.
"Many countries, including several neighbouring ones, haven't been able to do this," he added.
The CEC also said non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) enrolled for postal vote from 122 countries, where culture and postal systems are of varied nature creating many unprecedented challenges.
Election Commissioners Abdur Rahmanel Masud, Md. Anwarul Islam Sarker and Brig-General Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah (Retd.) and EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed were present.
Team leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project on expatriate voter registration Salim Ahmad Khan made a detailed presentation on the process.
Shedding light on the background of the postal-voting system and related technical issues, he said, "There is no scope for giving postal vote by a different person in place of the actual voter."
Some 216,998 NRB voters received their ballot papers while 681,743 ballots have already reached destination countries.
Representatives of political parties and independent candidates or their representatives attended the programme, while Bangladesh embassies' officials joined the event virtually.
During question-answer session, Chief Coordinator of BNP Central Election Steering Committee (CESC) Md. Ismail Zabiullah said different posts on social media regarding the postal ballot and other issues raised questions about integrity of the Election Commission.
"We are anxious with the events that happened in Oman, Tayef and Bahrain," he said, indicating the incidents that videos show individual voters dealing with ballot papers of other voters.
Regarding the BNP's symbol--'sheaf of paddy'--being placed in the fold of ballot paper, he urged the EC to rearrange the symbols.
"It has been done deliberately, we assume," he said.
Also, candidates and representatives of different constituencies raised question about the integrity in the postal-voting system.
Election Commission Secretariat Additional Secretary K M Ali Newaz and Salim Ahmad Khan responded to them.
Polling for the 13th national parliamentary elections, alongside a constitutional referendum, is scheduled for February 12.
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