The Election Commission had previously announced its intention to monitor the social media campaigns of political parties and candidates leading up to the 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum set for February 12.
However, as the election and referendum are only three days away, the EC has disclosed that it has not initiated monitoring due to the absence of social media account lists from the parties and candidates.
Nevertheless, the commission emphasized that there is still time to monitor the social media accounts of the parties and candidates, noting that they have been actively observing election campaigns on social media platforms to identify authentic and fake posts.
There are a total of 52 political parties registered with the EC, with 2,017 candidates participating in the polls. The list of social media accounts used for campaigning is required to be submitted to the 67 returning officers spread across the country’s 300 constituencies.
The EC had finalized and published the Code of Conduct 2025 for political parties and candidates on November 10 last year. According to Clause 16 of the code, candidates, their election agents, or respective parties must provide details of social media platforms, account IDs, email IDs, and other identifying information related to their campaign to the returning officer before commencing electioneering.
Although nationwide electioneering commenced on January 22, the EC is yet to receive the list of social media accounts from the parties and candidates.
In a directive issued on February 3, the commission instructed the returning officers nationwide to centrally submit links to election campaigns on social media. However, the EC officials confirmed that the links have not been submitted by the returning officers.
The directive also highlighted that all expenses related to social media campaigning, such as content creation, advertisements, boosting, and sponsorships, must be reported to the EC as part of the overall election expenditure.
In response to inquiries, Election Commissioner Anwarul Islam Sarkar stated that the monitoring process is ongoing, emphasizing the need for parties and candidates to comply with the code of conduct. Additionally, he mentioned that the EC is actively monitoring campaigns on electronic, print, and social media platforms.
Furthermore, the election commissioner warned that failure to submit social media account details may result in legal consequences for violating the code of conduct.
EC Director (Public Relations) Ruhul Amin Mollik confirmed that none of the returning officers had submitted the links of social media accounts used in election campaigns to the commission. He assured that monitoring would be conducted post-election, with appropriate actions taken against any identified irregularities.
