Dhaka, Dec. 11 -- Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin has announced the schedule for the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on implementing the July Charter, setting Feb 12, a Thursday, next year as the polling day.

Under the announced schedule, nomination papers for the parliamentary election may be submitted from Dec 12-29, with scrutiny to be conducted from Dec 30 to Jan 4. The last date for withdrawing nominations is Jan 20, with voting to take place three weeks later.

Election symbols will be allocated on Jan 21, after withdrawals. This provides 18 days for filing nominations and 20 days for campaigning.

Campaigning must stop 48 hours before polling begins. This means the official campaign period will run from ...