EC restores candidacy of 41 more

Ahead of the February 12 election, 41 more aspirants regained their candidacy, including Kishorganj-5 independent candidate AHM Kaium, as the Election Commission yesterday declared their nomination appeals valid.

On the third day of reviewing appeals against returning officers’ decisions to reject nominations, the EC heard 71 appeals, of which 41 were declared legal, said EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed in the afternoon.

He said 25 appeals were said to be invalid, four were kept pending, and one was not heard (Pabna-2).

The EC began its hearing on January 10 and would continue it until January 18. As of the third day, it completed the hearings of 197 appeals, and kept 13 pending.

The commission declared the nomination of Chattogram-9 Jamaat-e-Islami candidate AKM Fazlul Haque invalid over dual citizenship issues as he had US citizenship.

During the hearing, Fazlul said he applied to the US to cancel his citizenship on December 28 last year. The EC then asked whether his citizenship cancellation application was granted.

The Jamaat candidate placed his application before the EC and said that it takes six to eight months to get a response from the authority. In reply, the EC declared his candidacy invalid.

The EC kept pending the appeal of Sherpur-2 (Nokla-Nalitabari) BNP candidate Md Fahim Chowdhury’s nomination till 16 January over dual citizenship issue.

During the hearing, Fahim said he had Australian citizenship, which he applied to cancel on December 26 last year, and his application was accepted on January 6 this year.

On January 3, the EC declared invalid the nomination of AHM Kaium (Hasnat Kaium), an independent candidate from Kishorganj-5 (Nikli- Bajitpur), as his application lacks at least 1 percent voters’ signatures.

The EC yesterday restored his candidacy after hearing.

After the hearing, Kaium told reporters that during the initial verification it was reported that six out of 10 voters could not be found, but later investigations revealed the voters were too frightened to identify themselves that they have signed.

After an appeal, two voters appeared before the commission, which verified their statements, accepted his appeal, and allowed him to contest, he said.

Of yesterday’s 71 appeal hearings, one challenged the acceptance of the nomination in Kishorganj 5, filed by independent candidate and Bajitpur upazila BNP President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Ikbal. The EC rejected his appeal, ruling that his affidavit was incomplete.

Four appeals that remain pending with the EC are: Tangail-5 Ganosanghati Andolan candidate Fatema Akhtar, Dhaka-17 Bangladesh Labour Party contender Muhammad Rashedul Haque, Chattogram-5 independent candidate Mohammad Imam Uddin Riyad.

In Meherpur-1, National Citizen Party aspirant Md Sohel Rana regained his candidacy. Earlier, his nomination was cancelled over affidavit discrepancy.

In Natore-2, National People’s Party candidate GAA Mubin’s nomination was cancelled as he did not meet eligibility requirements related to government service.

In Chattogram-11, Gono Odhikar Parishad candidate Muhammad Nezam Uddin’s nomination was cancelled due to a loan default of Tk 97,991.

In Feni-2, nomination of independent candidate Md Ismail was declared invalid as he failed to secure the mandatory one percent of voter support.

In Chattogram-5, the appeal of independent candidate Shakila Farzana was declared “not pressed”.

Of the 2,568 nomination papers submitted for the 13th general election, returning officers initially accepted 1,842 and rejected 723 during scrutiny.

A total of 645 appeals were filed with the EC against the returning officers’ decisions.