Jamaat has finally decided that its aspirants will contest the December 30 parliamentary election with "sheaf of paddy", the electoral symbol of BNP, party insiders said.

Both ruling Awami League and its rival BNP have picked new faces for Sylhet-1 constituency which has always been considered as the general election bellwether for the parties since 1991.

Around 60 new faces got BNP tickets for the December 30 parliamentary election and most of them are former student leaders and family members of veteran or deceased party leaders.

Around 1,700 aspirants from alliances led by Awami League and BNP are filing nominations in 300 constituencies as both the camps failed to pick a single contender in every seat for the upcoming parliamentary election.

Nominations are not being given based on alliance but on political parties, said Gonoforum president Dr Kamal Hossain.

Electronic voting machines will be used in Dhaka-6 and-13, Chattogram-9, Rangpur-3, Khulna-2 and Satkhira-2 constituencies in the upcoming parliamentary election.

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked her party candidates to go to their electoral constituencies saying that the upcoming national election would be "competitive".

Aggrieved supporters of Awami League leaders who were not nominated by the party, blocked roads and attacked homes while demonstrating in several districts yesterday.

Jatiya Party and other parties of the Awami League-led alliance would now field MP candidates separately, leaving the seat-sharing issue to be solved later, as the deadline for filing nomination papers expires tomorrow.

The BNP picked two candidates each for almost every constituency as it started handing out nomination letters to aspirants for 240 seats yesterday.

A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a writ petition with the High Court (HC), challenging the legality of the appointments of the chief election commissioner (CEC) and four other election commissioners, claiming that no specific rules were formulated for their appointment.

Prof Abu Sayeed, former Awami League state minister for information, joined the Gonoforum, a component of the Jatiya Oikyafront, yesterday and collected the party's nomination form to contest the upcoming national polls from Pabna-1.

A two-member high-power European Union (EU) election expert mission will arrive in Dhaka to monitor the upcoming general elections.

Gonoforum President Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday demanded the replacement of Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda with a credible person for holding a free and fair national election.

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed for eight weeks a High Court order that halted the Bangladesh Bank and Sonali Bank's decisions to allow M/S Patuakhali Jute Mills, owned by ruling Awami League Chief Whip ASM Feroz, to reschedule its loans of Tk 26.80 crore for the ninth time.

Awami League has picked a number of new faces for contesting the 11th parliamentary election from the ruling party tickets.

BNP-led 20-party alliance coordinator Col (retd) Oli Ahmed says that the Election Commission (EC) has failed to prove it as a neutral body till the date.

Jatiya Oikyafront, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, will finalise its candidates for all 300 constituencies before Wednesday based on consensus of all of its alliance partners.

A Supreme Court lawyer files a writ petition with the High Court (HC) challenging the legality of the schedule for holding the 11th parliamentary election without dissolving the parliament.

Election commissioners ask the executive magistrates to act without any bias while discharging their duties during the upcoming parliamentary elections.