The deadline for candidates to withdraw their nomination papers for the upcoming 13th National Parliament election expires today, Tuesday (January 20). Following this deadline, the Election Commission (EC) will finalize the list of contestants for the 300 constituencies.
Symbol Allocation and Campaigning Election symbols will be allotted to candidates tomorrow, Wednesday (January 21). Official campaigning will begin the following day, January 22. Voting is scheduled for Thursday, February 12, from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. In a significant move, both the parliamentary elections and a national referendum will be held simultaneously using transparent ballot boxes and paper ballots.
Withdrawal Regulations According to the EC, candidates must submit a signed written notice to the Returning Officer to withdraw. For political parties that initially nominated more than one person for a single seat, the party leadership must notify the Returning Officer of their final choice by today. Any candidates not finalized by the party will automatically be dropped from the race. Once a withdrawal notice is submitted or a nomination is finalized, it cannot be revoked.
Appeal Statistics The EC recently concluded the hearing of 645 appeals against the decisions of Returning Officers. Of these, 425 appeals were granted, allowing those candidates to join the race, while 209 were rejected and 11 were withdrawn.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin stated that the commission has worked impartially to resolve these disputes and called for public and media cooperation to ensure a fair and successful election.
Initially, 2,568 nomination papers were submitted nationwide. After the first round of scrutiny, 1,842 were declared valid, a number that has since increased following the appeal process.
