The number of political parties and candidates, who will contest in the upcoming parliamentary election, will be much lesser than that of the previous ones as only 25 parties will be registered as parliamentary parties this time around, Election Commission (EC) officials said.
With only two days left to finish registering political parties on Monday, the EC so far distributed certificates of registration to 15 parties, and seven more will get theirs today and tomorrow while 47 were denied registration, the officials added.
In the 2001 parliamentary election, more than 1,500 candidates from 55 parties contested. But the number will drop this year as nominees of only registered parties and independent candidates will be allowed to contest in the December 18 parliamentary poll.
Before the January 22, 2007 election was stalled, 76 parties had submitted about 2,000 nominations.
But this time around, the registered political parties will select one person as a candidate for each constituency from a panel of five suggested by their grassroots level units.
The remaining four of the panel will not even be able to contest as independent candidates, according to the amended Representation of the People Order (RPO).
In past parliamentary elections, numerous political party members contested as independent candidates or became dummy competitors to the main party ticket holders after failing to get party nominations.
The five-member technical committee of the EC headed by its Joint Secretary Nurul Islam Khan, is however giving a final look at 22 other parties, a few of which might be picked for registration.
"We are going to wrap the registration process of political partiers on November 10," NI Khan told reporters in his office yesterday afternoon, adding they will deliver all the certificates of registration to the parties before the deadline.
Asked how many parties might get registrations from the 22 parties whose applications are still being processed, he replied, "There might be a few."
He said a total of 47 parties were denied registration as those failed to fulfill the criteria for registration.
"The total number of political parties to get EC registration might not cross 25," NI Khan informed the journalists.
The 15 parties which already received certificates of registration are Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Jatiya Party (JP-Monju), Bangladesh Sammyabadi Dal (ML), Krishak Sramik Janata League, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh National Awami Party (NAP--Mozaffar), Awami League (AL), Ganotantri Party, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Dal (BNP), the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpo Dhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD--Inu), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and Jatiya Samjtantrik Dal (JSD--Rab).
The seven parties to get certificates soon are Tarikat Federation, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (Khalequzzaman), Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP--Andaleeb), Islami Okiya Jote (IOJ), and Bangladesh NAP (Enamul Haq).
The commission earlier had set October 15 as the last date for applying for registration with the EC as parliamentary parties, but however extended the deadline by five days in the face of demand from BNP and its allies.