Dhaka, Nov. 18 -- With the 13th parliamentary election approaching, the Election Commission (EC) has granted party registration to the National Citizen Party (NCP) and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal Marxist.

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told journalists at a briefing on Tuesday afternoon at EC headquarters that a formal gazette had been issued, the two parties had been registered and allocated election symbols.

The EC headed by AMM Nasir Uddin took more than eight months to register new political parties.

Applications were invited on Mar 10, with a deadline later extended to Jun 22. A total of 143 parties applied. Now, only two have been registered.

Initial scrutiny rejected 121 applications for registration as political parties for faili...