Report in The Daily Star, Oct 17, 2023
Breaking away from its age-old tradition, the Awami League is going to introduce online collection and submission of its
nomination forms for the upcoming national election slated for January.
This means, nomination seekers will not require to come to Dhaka to collect and submit their forms.
“Under the Awami League, Bangladesh has seen a great digital transformation. So, we will also have to make the Awami League
digital,” former cabinet secretary Kabir Bin Anwar, now involved in formulating AL’s election strategy, told The Daily Star.
The party made the decision in efforts to stop infighting among nomination-seekers during collection and submission of
nomination forms. The decision also aims to ease the pressure that the party office staff face at the time, said party sources.
A large number of aspirants come to Dhaka to collect and submit nomination forms. In a show of strength, they bring along a
huge number of supporters and followers each time.
“The showdowns by aspirants in the same constituency also led to confrontation,” one AL insider said.
In addition, many aspirants collect nomination forms only for publicity, knowing full well that they will not get the
nomination.
For example, for the 11th parliamentary election in 2018, as many as 4,037 AL aspirants collected nomination forms. That is an
average of 13 hopefuls in each of the 300 constituencies.
Considering all this, the AL decided to complete the whole process digitally, the sources said.
Under the election law, aspirants can submit their nomination forms online.
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/al-sell-collect-nomination-forms-online-3445386
