Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) has officially registered the National Citizen Party (NCP), a political party that emerged from the student-led organisation Students Against Discrimination (SAD) — the same movement credited with leading last year’s uprising that resulted in the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.

The EC confirmed the party’s registration through a gazette notification issued on Monday, coinciding with a dramatic development: the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentencing former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death in absentia for alleged “crimes against humanity.”

NCP gets ‘Shapla Koli’ symbol after dispute

The NCP has been allotted the ‘Shapla Koli’ (water lily bud) as its electoral symbol. The party had originally demanded the ‘Shapla’ (water lily) — Bangladesh’s national emblem — and even threatened protests when the request was denied in September.

Earlier this month, NCP leaders agreed to accept the alternative symbol and announced their decision to contest all 300 parliamentary constituencies in the upcoming national elections.

EC registers two parties, reviews 143 more

EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed confirmed the registration of both the National Citizen Party and the Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Marxist).

The commission is currently reviewing applications from 143 additional political parties, indicating the possibility of an exceptionally crowded electoral field.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission also released Bangladesh’s final voter roll ahead of the polls. The country now has 127,695,183 total voters, comprising 64,814,907 male, 62,879,042 female and 1,234 transgender voters.

The updated list sets the stage for what is expected to be one of the most highly contested elections in Bangladesh’s recent history.

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