The Election Commission (EC) will itself allocate a symbol to the National Citizen Party (NCP) if the party fails to select one from the EC's list, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said, reports UNB.
"I have no information regarding any alternative proposal that differs from the Election Commission's earlier position on this matter. The Commission had said it will allocate an election symbol on its own consideration," he said.
The EC Secretary made the remark while speaking at a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital on Monday.
He said a notification would be published in newspapers listing the political parties considered eligible for registration, along with the symbols assigned to them.
About the progress of implementing the electoral roadmap, he said around 90 to 95 per cent of the Commission's action plans have already been executed. "If two pending tasks are completed this week, the implementation rate will reach 100 per cent," he said.
Akhtar Ahmed said the two pending tasks are the registration of political parties and the registration of election observer organisations. "Yes, we are slightly behind schedule in these two areas as per our action plan," he said.
Regarding political party registration, he said the EC has initially identified 22 parties as potentially eligible and collected additional information from the field about them. "InshaAllah we'll complete this process within this week," he said.
About the second issue, the EC Secretary said the Commission will complete the registration process for the local election observation organisations this week after addressing complaints about them.
He said the delay should not be viewed as a cause of concern. This slight lag has createda sense of urgency for the commission to complete its tasks soon. Replying to a question about a possible referendum, the EC senior secretary said the Commission has not yet received any official proposal or information in this regard. "There's no information on any referendum at the Election Commission as of now. Since no data or proposal has reached us, I think it would be inappropriate to make any assumption on this matter," he said.
The EC released the final list of 42,761 polling stations throughout the country for the 13th parliamentary election to be held in early February 2026, raising the number by around 611 from what was in the 2024 national election.
"We've finalised the list of the polling stations. The total number of polling stations is 42,761 in 300 constituencies of 64 districts," said EC secretary.
There will be nearly 2,45,000 polling booths, 1,15,137 for male voters and 1,29,602 for female voters inside the 42,761 polling stations, he said.
