61 aspirants regain candidacy on third day of appeal
Sixty-one candidates of the upcoming national polls – whose nominations were initially cancelled by respective returning officers (RO) of their seats – got their candidacy back on the third day of the Election Commission's (EC) appeal hearing.
The hearing was held at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon area on Tuesday (12 December).
The commission reviewed 98 appeals today. Of them, 61 appeals were accepted, 35 were rejected and 2 remain pending.
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In the last three days, a total of 168 candidates got back their candidacy – 56 on the first day and 51 on the second.
Till today, the EC decided to reject a total of 108 appeals for candidacy.
Earlier on Monday, independent candidate of Chattogram-10 Farid Mahmud, Trinamool BNP candidate Md Nazmul Islam of Dhaka-14, independent candidate from Mymensingh-11 Mohammad Abdul Waheed, independent candidate of Kushtia-4 Abdur Rauf, Munshiganj-2 Sangskritik Mukti Jote candidate Nur Alam Siddique, Rangpur-2 independent candidate Mst Sumna Akhtar, Nurul Amin of Sangskritik Mukti Jote candidate for Dhaka-5, Hazra Shahidul Islam of Jatiya Party in Bagerhat-2, independent candidate Machuma Akhtar of Gaibandha-2 got their candidature reinstated.
Additionally, independent candidate of Cumilla-2 Md Abdul Majid, Dhaka-19 BSP's Md Julhas, Dhaka-12 BNF's Md Atiqur Rahman Nazim, Trinamool BNP's Rajbari-2 candidate SM Fazlul Haque, Noakhali-1 independent candidate Khandkar Amin, Trinamool BNP candidate Maryam Sultana in Bagerhat-2, Tariq Mahdi of Bangladesh Nationalist Front in Jamalpur-4, Farhana Saeed independent candidate in Dhaka-6, SM Ajmal independent candidate in Bagerhat-2 and Md Jamil Hossain independent candidate in the Bagerhat-4 also got back their candidacy.
According to the EC, aspiring candidates must participate in these hearings along with their legal representatives and the essential documentation for their defence.
If dissatisfied with the decision, they will have the option to seek reconsideration through the High Court.
Among those who regained their candidature on Sunday were Mahi B Chowdhury, Hero Alom, Doly Shaontoni, and Nasirul Islam Khan.
The nomination of Mahi B Chowdhury, a candidate of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh for the Munshiganj-1 constituency, was cancelled on a charge of defaulting loans.
Singer Doly Shaontoni, a candidate of the Bangladesh Nationalist Movement for the Pabna-2 constituency, was cancelled on a charge of defaulting on credit card debt.
YouTuber Ashraful Hossain Alom, widely known as Hero Alom aspires to run for the Bogura-4 constituency, but his candidacy was cancelled on a charge of wrongly filing the nomination paper.
Apart from this, the nomination of Awami League-nominated candidate for Kishoreganj-3 Nasirul Islam Khan was cancelled on a charge of concealment of lawsuit information.
The 12th JS elections will be held on 7 January as per the schedule announced by CEC Kazi Habibul Awal on 15 November.
A total of 2,716 nomination papers have been submitted against 300 parliamentary seats.
During scrutiny, 731 nomination papers were rejected. A total of 558 appeals have been made to the EC against the decisions of the ROs.
Appeals for reinstating candidacy for the upcoming 12th national election began on 5 December and were accepted until 9 December. The appeal process started on 10 December and will continue till 15 December.
