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31/12/2025
Laws of Bangladesh

The Representation of the People Order, 1972 (President's Order)

( PRESIDENT'S ORDER NO. 155 OF 1972 )

[ 26th December, 1972 ]

Chapter III

ELECTION

20. (1) If there are 1[one or more] contesting candidates than one in respect of any constituency, the Returning Officer shall-

 
 

2[(a) allocate, in the case of a contesting candidate set up by a registered political party, the symbol reserved for that party by the Commission under this Order or the rules 3[:

 
 

4[Provided that the Commission, on an application made to it in this behalf within 3 (three) days after the publication of the notification under clause (1) of Article 11, may in case of a combination of two or more registered political parties who have agreed to set up joint candidates for election, allot the symbol reserved for the political party to which the candidate belongs;]]

 
 

(aa) allocate, 5[in the case of independent] contesting candidates, subject to any direction of the Commission, one of the prescribed symbols to each such contesting candidate; and in so doing shall, so far as possible, have regard for any preference indicated by the candidate;] 6[and]

 
 

(b) publish in such manner as the Commission may direct the names of contesting candidates arranged in the alphabetical order specifying against each the symbol allocated to him 7[***]

 
 

8[***]

 
 

(2) The Returning Officer shall arrange to exhibit prominently at each polling station the name and symbol of each contesting candidate.

  • 1
    The words “one or more” were substituted for the word “more” by section 9 of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (Ordinance No. LVI of 2025).
  • 2
    Clauses (a) and (aa) were substituted for previous clause (a) by section 6 of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2001 (Act No. LVII of 2001)
  • 3
    The colon (:) was substituted for the semi-colon (;) and therafter the proviso was inserted by section 10 of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008 (Ord. No. 42 of 2008).
  • 4
    The proviso was substituted by section 9 of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (Ordinance No. LVI of 2025).
  • 5
    The words “in the case of independent” were substituted for the words “in the case of other” by section 10 of Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act. No. XIII of 2009) (with effect from 19th August, 2008).
  • 6
    The word “and” was inserted after semi-colon “;” at the end of sub-clauses (aa) by section 10 of Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act. No. XIII of 2009) (with effect from 19th August, 2008).
  • 7
    The full stop (.) was substituted for the semi-colon (;) at the end and the word “and” was omitted by section 10 of Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act. No. XIII of 2009) (with effect from 19th August, 2008).
  • 8
    Sub-clause (c) and 1st, 2nd and 3rd provisos were omitted by section 10 of Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act. No. XIII of 2009) (with effect from 19th August, 2008).
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