Pro-BNP lawyers again challenge legality of results

Thirteen pro-BNP lawyers yesterday filed five petitions with Bangladesh Bar Council challenging the legality of its election results.

Elections to 14 executive members' posts of the council which is the licensing and regulatory body of lawyers, were held on August 26.

Pro-AL lawyers' panel Sammilito Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad (SASP) bagged 11 posts while pro-BNP lawyers' panel Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Oikya Panel (JAOP) won the three remaining posts, according to official results published on September 1.

The pro-BNP lawyers submitted the petitions to the office of the Bar Council's secretary, saying that according to the rule 15(2) of the Bangladesh Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Rules, 1972, the chairman of the Bar Council must count all the ballot papers received from different polling centres of the election, but Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, chairman of the council, did not count the ballot papers. Rather, he declared the results on the basis of the voting numbers sent by the polling centres.

In the petitions, the lawyers prayed to the election tribunal of the council to declare the results illegal. However, the same pattern had been practiced in the previous years as well.

Petitioners' counsel AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said the Bar Council secretary will place the petitions to the three-member election tribunal of the Bar Council and after that the tribunal will fix a date for hearing.