Md. Shahjahan Bashar, Dhaka Correspondent:
There will be no more party symbols in the next local government elections. The interim government has issued an ordinance repealing the provisions on allocating party symbols in UP, Upazila, Municipality and City Corporation elections.
This decision was published in the gazette form through the Local Government Amendment Act Ordinance on Monday (August 18). With this, there will be no more legal scope for party nominations in the next elections.
The Ministry of Local Government said that four separate ordinances were drafted on July 1 and sent to the Cabinet Division. On July 24, it was published in the gazette form with the approval of the Advisory Council and the consent of the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division.
The interim government’s Electoral Reform Commission and Local Government Reform Commission also recommended eliminating party symbols. They said that this change would make the electoral process more neutral and fair.
Incidentally, in 2015, the Awami League government amended the law to allow voting on party symbols in city corporation, municipality, upazila parishad and union parishad elections. This time, the law has been amended to allow voting on non-party symbols.
Analysts believe that by abolishing party symbols, an attempt is being made to free the local government election process from political influence. However, according to some political experts, only time will tell how much of a change it will bring in the transparency of the voting system and party politics in the future.