Candidates of the 12th national polls will now be able to send SMS (short message service) to the voters with their election symbols during the campaigning period.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has issued a notification signed by Engineer Md Asif Wahid, senior assistant director of system and service division on Thursday.
This is a new step, which did not exist previously.
The concerned think that this decision may come in the wake of requests from candidates and mobile operators.
According to the notification, any candidate participating in the national elections can send an SMS to seek votes by mentioning the party or person’s symbol following the electoral conduct. The candidates will also be able to mention what actions they will bring for the people of their area.
The BTRC issued the directive amending Article 18.5 of the A2P SMS Aggregator Enrollment. It previously stated no candidates in the national or local elections can send SMS to voters mentioning their symbols.
The concerned people say that the candidates have taken such initiatives to attract young, tech-savvy voters.
It is known that some of the mobile phone operators have also designed bulk SMS packages, comprising 10,000 SMS, which will be available for Tk2,000.
The campaign period for the national polls began on Monday and will continue till 8am on January 5.
The 12th national polls is scheduled for January 7.
