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Published : 29 Jan 2026, 02:45 AM
Court orders have restored the candidacies of 40 to 45 aspirants over the past week, complicating matters for the Election Commission (EC), particularly as it sends postal ballots to Bangladeshi expatriate voters.
Ballot papers for the parliamentary election and referendum are being printed. Postal ballots have already been sent to registered voters.
The parliamentary polls and referendum will be held on Feb 12.
Returned postal ballot envelopes have started arriving from abroad. These postal ballot papers contain 118 symbols and the "None of the Above" option.
Around 2,000 candidates are contesting this parliamentary election. Of them, over 250 are independent candidates, while the rest represent 51 political parties.
The last day for candidacy withdrawal was Jan 20. On Jan 21, 1,972 contestants received symbols.
The EC had set a deadline of Jan 25 for postal ballots to be cast from abroad and sent to the country. So far, over 700,000 postal ballots have been issued, and 30,000 have already arrived in Bangladesh.
By court order, 40 to 45 candidates have had their candidacies reinstated. Most recently, on Tuesday, the BNP candidate in Chattogram-2 regained his candidacy.
On Wednesday, the EC announced the total number of candidates rose to 2,017.
When asked on Wednesday, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Mashud told bdnews24.com, “We will sit down [on Thursday] to figure out what can be done. We will extend the time by a few more days for sending postal ballots from abroad.”
[Please read the Bangla story for more details]
