DOT Desk
Printing press owners are hopeful of doing brisk business by supplying posters and other polls campaign materials to the candidates of different political parties uahead of the 11th parliamentary elections slated to be held on December 30, reports The Daily Star.
Around Tk 120 crore is likely to be spent for printing posters and other polls campaign materials in 300 constituencies countrywide, Shaheed Serniyabat, president of Bangladesh Printing Industry Association said to the daily sun.
He said that posters, handbills, paper caps, leaflets, stickers and badges are the main polls campaign materials. “Candidates of different political parties, who secured nominations on December 2 following scrutiny by the Election Commission (EC), have already placed orders with different printing presses across the country,” he stated. This time, candidates will get merely 19 days for polls campaign that starts on Monday night after allocation of polls symbols by the returning officers (ROs). “Other candidates who wait for approval of their respective parties and EC’s decisions following their appeals have also started placing orders to different printing presses,” he said. Printing press owners have already started printing posters and making polls campaign materials from last week while more orders are expected to come by this week.
Once the EC completes disposal of 543 petitions, the number of valid candidates will stand at 2,518 in 300 constituencies.
“A candidate belonging to Awami League and BNP will require on average 2 lakh posters in each constituency while rest others will require 2 lakh posters for electioneering,” he said, adding that demand for posters and other materials will comparatively increase in big constituencies.
He mentioned that six lakh posters will be required in a constituency while the figure will also be same for handbills in each constituency.
“This time, each constituency will need 12 lakh posters, handbills and voter slips as a large number of aspirants are set to contest in polls,” Serniyabat said.
There are about 7,000 printing presses across the country and 4,000 of them are used for printing posters.
Contacted, Alamgir Hossain of Al Madia Press at Fakirapool in the capital said that they had already started printing posters of would-be members of parliament.
“Every day, we work till midnight for supplying campaign materials to candidates,” he said adding, that the demand will increase within a few days.
He informed that they had printed 6 lakh posters for Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya whose candidature got rejected.
“We are now printing posters of a candidate from Cumilla-3 constituency.” “We expect many more orders of posters and polls campaign materials in the coming days.”
Contacted, Sadid Jubayer of Biddya Bithi Press at New Market in Bogura, said, “We are now busy printing polls campaign materials, including posters.”