The Election Commission removed Bangladesh Awami League’s electoral symbol ‘boat’ from the commission’s web site on Wednesday, nine weeks after suspending the registration of the party.
Immediately after removing AL’s electoral symbol, the commission on the day uploaded Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s electoral symbol scales in the web site.
The commission’s senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed, talking to reporters at its headquarters in the capital’s Agargaon area, said that the decision to remove boat symbol was taken purely to prevent public confusion.
‘There is no other reason. We removed the symbol so that no misunderstanding arises among the public,’ he said.
The Awami League regime was ousted on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.
On May 12, the interim government banned all activities of the Awami League and its affiliated, allied, and like-minded organisations until the completion of the trials at the International Crimes Tribunal.
On the same day, the EC suspended the Awami League’s registration as a political entity.
Just days before the removal of the boat symbol from the EC website, election commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said that the symbol would remain in the official list despite the suspension of the Awami League’s registration.
On Tuesday night, local government adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain in a Facebook post wrote, ‘On what grounds did you send the ‘cursed’ boat symbol to the Law Ministry for rescheduling? As a constitutional institution, have you just given a thumbs-up to disregarding the mass uprising?’
On June 24, Jamaat-e-Islami got back its registration with the Election Commission as a political party and its electoral symbol, scale.
The Election Commission Secretariat issued a gazette notification in this connection.
Jamaat, registered as a political party in 2008 under the Representation of the People Order 1972, lost its registration during the Awami League regime.
The High Court, responding to a writ petition, in 2013 deemed the Jamaat’s charter incompatible with the constitutional principles of secularism and sovereignty, and the EC in 2018 cancelled the party’s registration through a notification.
Jamaat’s electoral symbol scale was revoked in 2016 following a Supreme Court directive citing the scale’s association with the judiciary.
