Over 1,400 nomination forms sold, but many aspirants skipped interviews

National Citizen Party (NCP) is expected to publish a list of more than 100 candidates in the next two to three days, for the upcoming national polls.

NCP Senior Joint Convener and Election Steering Committee member Ariful Islam Adib confirmed the development to The Daily Star last night.

"We are working on finalising the list of 100 to 150 seats. We need two to three more days, and we can likely publish it within this week," he said.

A top NCP leader said that although around 1,500 people bought nomination forms, nearly half did not attend the party's two-day interview screening. "Even many of those who were selected have not yet fulfilled the party's requirements. For this reason, we still could not finalise the full list of 300 candidates.

"So, the election steering committee has decided to publish the candidate lists in phases -- the first 100 to 150 seats this week, followed by the next list of 200 seats next week," he added.

Regarding the party's aim to contest all constituencies, NCP Chief Coordinator and President of the Election Steering Committee Nasiruddin Patwary, said, "Our political council members are working on this. We are confident that we will be able to announce candidates for 300 seats in the upcoming election."

NCP sold 1,484 nomination forms between November 6 and 20 and interviewed several hundred aspirants from November 23 to 24.