Bangladesh: NCP refuses to sign July Charter until draft implementation order is reviewed

Dhaka, Oct 25 As political tensions continue to mount in Bangladesh, the National Citizen Party (NCP) on Saturday said that it will withhold signing the July Charter until it reviews the draft implementation order, local media reported.

Addressing journalists following the meeting between NCP representatives and the National Consensus Commission in Dhaka, Akhter Hossen, the member secretary of the NCP, warned that no political pressure should turn the charter into an instrument of deception.

“The commission informed us that an order for implementing the July Charter has been prepared, which we see as progress. However, they have not yet presented the details of the order to us, so we cannot be optimistic at this point. Signing the July charter would have been just a formality. We have told the commission that the draft order and its scope must be clear to the public. We will decide about signing after reviewing these,” Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune quoted the NCP leader as saying.

“One party wants to erase the July charter, and another wants to disrupt it. We have emphasised ensuring that the charter is not turned into an instrument of deception under any pressure,” he alleged, without naming any parties.

Reiterating the party’s demand to allocate Shapla (water lily) as its electoral symbol, Hossen said, “We want to contest the election under the Shapla symbol.”

Meanwhile, amid the boycott of several political parties, including the National Citizen Party(NCP) and four leftist parties, the July Charter was signed on October 17 by the Chief Advisor to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, members of the National Consensus Commission and leaders of different political parties.

On the other hand, with the growing political upheaval, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) proposed holding a referendum to implement the July National Charter alongside the national elections in February 2026, while the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami and NCP argued it should be held before the election.

The parties that earlier collaborated with Yunus to overthrow the democratically-elected government of the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, have been at the loggerheads over reform proposals.

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