NCP asked to choose new symbol by Oct 7 as EC rejects ‘Shapla’

The Election Commission has asked the National Citizen Party to select an election symbol by Oct 7, saying the party’s preferred logo “Shapla”, water lily, is not on the approved list. On Tuesday, EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed announced the decisions on new party registrations and sent a letter to the NCP the same day. The letter said the party’s application was found eligible for consideration, and it had proposed Shapla, pen and mobile phone as its choices of electoral symbols in order of preference. But under the Conduct of Election Rules, 2008, Shapla is not included in the official list of symbols. Therefore, the commission asked the NCP to select an available symbol from the approved list and inform the...