Candidates wait for appeal verdicts

The fate of three mayor hopefuls and around two dozen councillor aspirants for the upcoming Dhaka city corporation polls will be decided today.

The divisional commissioner of Dhaka will deliver the verdict on the appeals of three mayor aspirants, including Abdul Awal Mintoo, BNP-backed mayoral aspirant for Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), and Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, former BNP lawmaker and a mayoral aspirant for Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

Mintoo's nomination was cancelled on April 1 due to mistakes in filing procedure, while Pintu's nomination was cancelled on the same day for providing incorrect information about the cases filed against him.

Both of them filed appeals on Thursday with the divisional commissioner of Dhaka, challenging returning officers' (RO) decision to disqualify them.

Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman will arrange the hearing on Mintoo's appeal at 4:00pm and Pintu's at 4:30pm today, and deliver verdict.

Elections to Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations will be held on April 28. The deadline for filing nomination expired on March 29. A total of 47 mayoral and 1,417 councillor aspirants filed nominations in the two Dhaka city corporations.

While scrutinising the nomination papers on April 1 and 2, retuning officers cancelled nominations of five mayoral and 203 councillor aspirants on grounds like hiding information, loan default and mistakes in filing procedure.

Until yesterday, all five mayoral and 75 councillor aspirants appealed against the cancellation of their nomination, said ASM Mahfuzur Rahman, assistant commissioner of the office of Dhaka Divisional Commissioner yesterday.

Verdicts on the appeals of the rest will be delivered tomorrow.

MINTOO'S NOMINATION

As per the electoral law, one or more persons have to propose and support candidacy for a mayoral aspirant while filing his or her nomination. The proposer, supporter and the aspirant must be from the same electoral area.

Abdur Razzaque, who supported Mintoo's nomination, was a voter of Uttara-13 under Harirampur union parishad, which is not within the DNCC area.

That is why the RO cancelled Mintoo's nomination.

However, a portion of Uttara-13 is included in the DNCC area, according to EC officials and the map of Dhaka City Corporation.

Talking to The Daily Star, former CEC ATM Shamsul Huda said, "Although it is a silly mistake, the returning officer must follow existing laws."

Regarding demarcation of the boundary of the DNCC, he said, "If some people of a same area are included in city corporation and some remain outside the city, it is the fault with demarcation. It has nothing to do with voter lists because voter lists are prepared on the basis of the demarcated area."

After filing the appeal on Thursday, Mintoo's lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon told reporters that they might move to the High Court if the cancellation of Mintoo's nomination was upheld in the appeal.

Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Executive Magistrate Sarwar Alam yesterday fined five councillor aspirants Tk 46,000 for violating electoral code of conduct. He also fined one of the supporters of mayor aspirant Annisul Huq Tk 20,000 on similar ground.