Dhaka, Aug 11 (V7N) – Sixteen new political parties, including the Jatiya Nagorik Party, have cleared the Election Commission’s (EC) initial scrutiny in their bid for official registration.

The EC’s relevant branch confirmed the development on Sunday (August 10) afternoon, noting that a final decision will be made only after a detailed field verification of each party.

Earlier, 145 parties applied for registration by the June 22 deadline. However, none initially met all requirements. The EC then allowed a 15-day period for parties to address shortcomings.

Under the law, parties seeking registration must have a central committee, committees in at least one-third of districts, and 100 upazila committees. Each committee must also provide proof of support from at least 200 voters. Additionally, parties with a history of parliamentary representation or at least five percent of votes in the previous national election are automatically considered eligible.

The EC has been implementing the political party registration process under the Representation of the People Order (RPO) since 2008. Currently, 50 political parties are officially registered in Bangladesh.

END/RH/AJ