Sarjis Alam, chief organiser (northern region) of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has protested the Election Commission's (EC) decision to not allocate the "Shapla" (water lily) symbol to the party.

In a Facebook post today, Sarjis said the EC secretary's statement that "Shapla" is not on the list of electoral symbols proved that there was "no legal barrier" to allocating it for the NCP.

Sarjis argued that on the very day NCP applied for registration, the party had clearly requested for the "Shapla" symbol. "Whose responsibility was it to include Shapla in the list? Have they been sitting in the Election Commission watching a drama all this time? Or have they been acting on the instructions of another institution, party or agency instead of working as an independent body?" he wrote.

"Since there is no legal obstacle, NCP's symbol must be Shapla. There is no other option," he said.

"Otherwise," he added, "we too shall see how the election is held and who dreams of coming to power."

Earlier today, on the issue of electoral symbols, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters at the commission's headquarters in Dhaka that the NCP will not be allocated the Shapla symbol.

"The reason is that our list includes 115 reserved symbols, and Shapla is not among them. The rule is that a symbol must be selected from the reserved list. If Shapla isn't on that list, then where is the opportunity to allocate it?" he said.

He added that NCP must now submit an alternative proposal, and a final decision would be made with mutual agreement.