The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday cancelled the candidacy of BNP’s Monzurul Ahsan Munshi and upheld that of National Citizen Party (NCP) candidate Abul Hasnat, popularly known as Hasnat Abdullah, in Cumilla-4.

The decision came after the EC, led by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, heard appeal petitions filed by both candidates against each other.

The orders were issued in the afternoon.

The EC accepted the appeal filed by Hasnat canceling the candidature of Monzurul Ahsan, but turned down the appeal filed by Monzurul Ahsan, declaring the candidacy of Hasnat valid in the upcoming national election scheduled for February-12.

Free, fearless media vital to Bangladesh democracy: Journalists

Munshi, in his petition, alleged that Hasnat did not mention the sources of his income rightly in the affidavit submitted with the nomination paper.

Hasnat in his appeal alleged that Munshi is a loan defaulter and concealed the information in the nomination paper.

The EC that acts the electoral appeal tribunal started hearing of the appeal on Saturday last (January 10) and will dispose of a total of 645 petitions by Sunday (January 18).

The EC on Saturday last (January 10) started hearing of the appeal petitions filed by aggrieved persons and organisations against the decisions of the returning officers over the acceptance and cancellations of nomination papers during the scrutiny.

According to the EC, a total of 2,568 aspirants submitted nomination papers to contest the upcoming national election from the country’s 300 constituencies by the December 29 deadline.

After scrutiny, returning officers declared 1,842 nomination papers valid and rejected 723 others.