United News of Bangladesh

The Election Commission has so far cleared the way for 275 candidates in the past five days of hearing as 72 regained candidacies on Wednesday to run in the upcoming national election scheduled for February 12 next. Besides, 78 other invalid aspirants failed to return to the race as the EC chaired by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin rejected their appeal petitions in the four days. On Wednesday, a total of 100 petitions were placed for hearing in the Electoral Appeal Tribunal (EC). “Upon hearing the appeals, the Commission granted 73 petitions, rejected 17 others and kept the rest 10 petitions pending to be settled later,” said EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed briefing reporters on Wednesday evening. Read More: EC bars polls to all bodies, associations before Feb. 12 elections done With the EC’s decisions, 72 previous invalid candidates returned to the electoral race, while several previously valid candidates lost candidature as appeal filed against her was accepted. The Commission so far heard 380 petitions (in the last five days) and is supposed to hear another 100 petitions on Thursday to complete the hearing and disposal of 645 petitions by January 18, said the EC Secretary. On Wednesday, four appeals against the validity of nomination papers were heard. Among these, the EC rejected an appeal petition filed challenging the validity of BNP nominated candidate for Cumilla-6 Monirul Haque Chowdhury, keeping the candidacy valid to contest in the 13th parliamentary election. BNP candidate for Cumilla-6 to remain valid Independent candidate and BNP leader Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid for Cumilla-6 filed a petition with the EC, which is the Electoral Appeal Tribunal, against the acceptance of the nomination paper of Monirul Haque during the scrutiny. In the petition, former MP Amin Ur Rashid alleged that Monirul Haque concealed the information of bank loans and wife’s assets in the affidavit filed with the nomination paper. During the petition, the Election Commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, declared that the nomination paper of Monirul Haque to remain valid. Fate of BNP candidate for Dinajpur-5 to be settled Jan 17 Read More: EC hearings reopen race for 41 more election candidates The Commission kept another appeal petition against the validity of the nomination paper of BNP candidate for Rajshahi-5 AKM Kamruzzaman pending to be settled on January 17. Independent candidate for the same constituency AZM Rezwanul Haque filed the petition challenging the acceptance of Kamruzzaman’s nomination paper by the returning officer. In the petition, the appellant claimed the BNP candidate has dual citizenship as he didn’t place any document to prove that he gave up British citizenship. Kamruzzaman ‘s counselor and senior lawyer Ruhul Kuddus Kajal told reporters that the BNP candidate gave up British citizenship which was announced in the affidavit submitted with the nomination paper. There is no scope in the constitution to bar AKM Kamruzzaman from contesting the election on this ground, he said. Besides, an appeal filed by BNP candidate for Cumilla-2 Selim Bhuyan against the validity of independent candidate Abdul Matin, but the Commission turned down his petition. With the EC’s decision, the candidacy of Abdul Matin would remain valid. However, the EC granted an appeal filed by Jatiya Party candidate for Kurigram-4 KM Mandal against the validity of Bangladesh Supreme Party candidate Shefali Begum. So, Shefali Begum lost her candidature in Kurigram-4. 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. The returning officers declared 1,842 nomination papers valid, while 723 others invalid during the scrutiny.