Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Secretary General Dr. Shafiqur Rahman has issued the following statement on 8th January, 2017 urging to repeal the ban which has been imposed earlier on the usage of ‘Daripalla’ (Weighing Scale) as electoral symbol.

“Since the independence of this country, Daripalla (Weighing Scale) has been used as an electoral symbol in all the national and local government elections. The countrymen become completely shocked and surprised as the election commission, in a recent move has imposed a ban on using Daripalla (Weighing Scale) as electoral symbol as per the whim of the government.

Jamaat had applied for the first time to use Daripalla (Weighing Scale) as the electoral symbol for the party’s nominee during the parliamentary election of 1986. The Election Commission also took the appeal into their consideration and fixed the Weighing Scale as the electoral symbol of Jamaat-e-Islami. During the process of political party’s registration in 2008, Jamaat-e-Islami was registered with Weighing Scale symbol. But recently a decision has been declared not to allocate Daripalla (Weighing Scale) as electoral symbol anymore. It is completely an unusual move with wrong political intention.

Public support and sympathy is increasing significantly for Jamaat-e-Islami in reverse of the ongoing government’s repression and torture against Jamaat-e-Islami. The decision of banning weighing scale is envious and it has been taken so that Jamaat cannot use it to attain the growing popularity. We are protesting this unjust decision and urging to repeal it immediately.”