The Election Commission wants to complete the registration process of new political parties by next month.
The commission has received applications from 76 parties seeking registration ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections.
An EC committee, headed by its additional secretary Mokhlesur Rahman, has started scrutinising the applications to know whether the parties fulfil the conditions for registration.
The scrutiny committee chief said there is a possibility to complete the registration process by March.
EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said the commission last week sent a list of 76 new parties to the home ministry asking the intelligence agencies to examine if there is any banned political outfit among the applicants.
"The committee will submit its report to the EC Secretariat on March 8 next and then place it in the commission's meeting for its final decision," he said.
But, EC officials said they are not getting the existence of offices and activities of many of the 76 political parties during their initial scrutiny, which is one of the prerequisites to be eligible for registration.
They said they have found commercial entities, houses and shops in the office locations the parties mentioned in their applications. This time, the Commission may award registration to a handful of parties.
After the issuance of a public notification on October 30 last, a total of 76 political parties applied to the commission seeking registration within the December 31 deadline.
As per the Representation of the People Order 1972, only registered political parties are eligible to contest the national election and local elections with their respective permanent election symbols reserved by the EC.
Unregistered parties can contest the polls fielding independent candidates.
The EC headed by ATM Shamsul Huda took initiatives to bring the political parties under the EC's registration for the first time before 9th parliamentary election in 2008.
39 parties of out of 117 applicants were registered after the submission of their draft organisational charters.
Later, the commission cancelled the registration of Freedom Party, one of the 39 registered parties, as the government banned the party.
Besides, the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami was cancelled after a High Court order in August 2013 declared its registration illegal.
In February 2013, the Commission gave registration to another party --Bangladesh Muslim League-BML.
In 2013, 43 new political parties applied to the EC seeking registration.
The then commission headed by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad awarded the registration to only two parties --Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktijot (Muktijote) and Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF)-a few months before the 2014 national election.
UNB says, the number of registered political parties is now 40, including the three that got registration in 2013.
According the Article 90 (B) of the RPO, if any political party desires to be registered, it needs to fulfil one of the three conditions.
