The Election Commission has made it clear once again that the “Shapla”, or water lily, symbol cannot be allotted as a party emblem under any circumstances. “Legally, constitutionally, and according to the rules on symbol allocation, we cannot give the Shapla symbol,” Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker told bdnews24.com on Friday. The party urged the commission to amend the list of election symbols if necessary to accommodate their request. The commission has previously clarified that the national emblem “Shapla” cannot be used as a voting symbol under its existing policy. Earlier, the political platform Nagarik Oikya had also applied to replace its “kettle” symbol with “Shapla”, but the commission rejected that application as well.
