Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) has officially registered the National Citizen Party (NCP) as a political party ahead of next year’s election.
The NCP is an offshoot of Students against Discrimination (SAD) that led last year’s uprising, which toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government.
The EC has allotted the NCP the electoral symbol ‘Shapla Koli’ (water lily bud), according to a gazette notification issued on Monday, the same day Hasina was handed the death sentence in absentia by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for “crimes against humanity” over her government’s crackdown on student-led protests.
Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed had announced that the EC has granted registration to the NCP as well as to the Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Marxist) party.
Earlier this month, amid its consistent demand for the Shapla (water lily) symbol, the party decided to opt for “Shapla Koli” as its electoral symbol and declared that it would field candidates in 300 constituencies in the February 2026 election.
The NCP had earlier sought ‘Shapla’ (water lily) as its symbol. After the rejection in September, the NCP had warned of protests and accused the authorities of denying it a fair option. However, earlier this month, the party reversed its position and agreed to accept ‘Shapla Koli’ as its official election symbol.
The “Shapla” is also the national emblem of Bangladesh.
The party’s registration comes as Bangladesh heads for a tense election season marked by political uncertainty and growing public attention on new and emerging players.
Senior Secretary of the EC Secretariat, Akhtar Ahmed, said the commission has begun the process of reviewing registration applications from 143 political parties.
The EC on Tuesday published the final voter list ahead of the parliamentary polls. The total number of registered voters stands at 127,695,183. Among them, 64,814,907 are male voters, 62,879,042 females, and 1,234 transgenders.
