The Election Commission (EC) has completed the allocation of symbols for 1,973 candidates contesting 298 constituencies across Bangladesh for the upcoming 13th national parliamentary election.
With the symbol allocation completed, candidates will be able to start their campaigns from Thursday, EC officials said.
Returning officers across the 298 constituencies conducted the symbol allocation from Wednesday morning until 5pm, assigning symbols to all 1,973 candidates.
"Returning officers have completed the symbol allocation by 5pm on Wednesday. All 1,973 candidates nationwide have received their symbols," said Director (Public Relations) and information officer of the EC Secretariat Md Ruhul Amin Mallick.
He said returning officers will now submit details of how many candidates are contesting in each constituency to the EC.
They will also submit Form-5 containing the candidates' information, which will guide the printing of ballot papers.
"Following symbol allocation, candidates can begin their election campaigns from Thursday," he added.
According to the EC's "Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Candidates 2025," no registered political party, nominated candidate, independent candidate, or any representative campaigning on their behalf can start campaigning earlier than three weeks before the polling day. Campaigning must also end 48 hours prior to the start of voting.
EC officials said that a total of 1,973 candidates, both party-affiliated and independent, will contest the 13th parliamentary election in 298 constituencies, excluding Pabna-1 and Pabna-2. A total of 2,580 nomination papers were submitted for the 300 seats. Of these, 1,855 nominations were valid while 725 were rejected.
Following appeals, 437 candidates regained their eligibility. By the deadline on Tuesday at 5pm, 305 candidates nationwide withdrew their nominations.
According to the schedule, election campaigns will run from 22 January until 48 hours before voting begins. Voting for the 13th national parliament and the referendum will take place on 12 February from 7:30am to 4:30pm, using ballot papers and transparent ballot boxes.
The schedule for the election was announced on 11 December by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin in a public address. The deadline for filing nominations was 29 December 2025.
