A majority of aspirants who challenged the rejection of their nomination papers have regained eligibility to contest the 13th parliamentary election, as the Election Commission (EC) adopted a lenient approach towards minor errors and unintentional mistakes found in nomination documents and affidavits ahead of the February 12 polls.
The EC that acts as the electoral appeal tribunal gave the candidacy back to 51 aspirants out of 67 petitioners heard on Saturday, while 27 aspirants out of 35 petitioners heard on Monday till 1pm.
The Commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, accepted a total of 52 petitions, rejected 15 others and kept the rest three pending. With the EC’s decision, 51 candidates were reinstated in the electoral race and one candidate lost candidacy as the petition filed against the acceptance of his nomination paper was granted by the Electoral Appeal Tribunal.
Independent candidate for Dhaka-9 constituency Tasnim Jara and Jamaat-e-Islami aspirant for Cox’s Bazar-2 AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad were among the petitioners whose appeals were accepted on Saturday.
On Sunday, the EC heard a total of 35 petitions till 1pm. Among these, 27 petitions were accepted, seven others were turned down and the rest three were kept pending. The Election Commission will hear some 70 petitions on Sunday.
Jamaat aspirant for Jamalpur-3 Mujibur Rahman Azadi and Former MP and Jatiya Party aspirant for Bogura-2 Shariful Islam Zinnah regained their candidacy back on Sunday.
A total of 645 aggrieved aspirants filed appeal petitions by January-9 deadline, challenging the decisions of 69 returning officers – two divisional commissioners (Dhaka and Chattogram), 64 district deputy commissioners and three regional election officers (Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna)—over the cancellation and acceptance of the nomination papers.
The Election Commission will hear and dispose of all the petitions by January 18.
Earlier, the returning officers declared 1,842 nomination papers valid, while 723 others invalid during the scrutiny from December 30 to January 04.
A total of 2,568 aspirants submitted nomination papers to run the upcoming national election from the country’s 300 constituencies within the December-29 deadline. Since BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia passed away, her three nomination papers were not scrutinized.
Tasnim Jara regains candidacy in appeal for Dhaka-9
The Election Commission on December 11 announced the polls schedule to arrange the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on February 12, 2026.
According to the schedule, the late date for withdrawal of candidature is January 20. The election campaign will start on January 22 and continue till (7:30am on February 10) 48 hours before the balloting period.