Ahead of only 33 days from the third Barisal City Corporation election scheduled to be held on June 15, submission of nomination papers ended on Sunday.Election office also formed a vigilance and observation committee to monitor allegations of violating election conduct rules.
Five out of six mayor candidates including three from BNP, two from AL and JL submitted nomination papers for one mayor, 145 for 30 general and 49 for 10 reserved female councilor candidates submitted nomination papers for third BCC Election 2013.
AL-led 14 party alliances on Friday declared out going Mayor and city AL president Shawkat Hossain Hiron as their officially backed candidate.
Mahmudur Rahman Khan Mamun, Joint Secretary of District Jubo League also submitted nomination papers for mayoral post, but Abul Kalam Azad, district CPB president refrained from submitting his nomination in favour of 14-party alliance candidate.
However BNP led 18-party alliance yet to take decision for nominating their candidates.
Advocate Kamrul Hasan Shahin, city BNP secretary and for public prosecutor, Ahsan Habib Kamal, district (south) BNP president and former Mayor of BCC , Ebaidul Huq Chan, Former District BNP Secretary and Former President of Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industries, submitted nomination paper for Mayoral post.
BNP-led 18-party alliance will decide to nominate their candidate before last date of withdrawal on May 26 and we will anonymously follow the decision of the party, the BNP Mayor candidates said.
Mujibur Rahman, Khulna regional election commissioner and returning officer for BCC election said after scrutiny of the submitted nomination papers on May 15 and 16, final list of candidates would be published on May 26 ending withdrawal dateline.
Then candidates would be allotted symbols from 20 varieties for mayoral post, 30 for general ward councilors and 18 for reserved female councilors, he added.
However probable candidates, especially the ward councilor candidates started propagation by posturing, publishing advertisement, hoisting banners of greetings, attending social functions, gathering and personally contacting peoples of their localities.
The returning officer for BCC election said outgoing Mayor Hiron resigned from BCC Mayor Post on Thursday to contest in the BCC Mayor Election.
Nikhil Chandra Das, Chief Executive Officer BCC, said he yet not received any direction from the ministry that who will perform the duty of acting mayor till taking charge of newly elected mayor.
The six-member committee for vigilance and observation about following election conduct rule has been formed by returning officer, as head, B K Das, assistant returning officer, member-secretary while Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Deputy Director Secondary And Higher Secondary Education Directorate, Zakir Hossain, Deputy Director Information, Ruhul Amin Khan, Executive Engineer, Local Government Engineering, Akkas Hossain, AL cultural activist and president district SUJAN, as members.
Mentionable as a divisional headquarter Barisal municipality had been upgraded to a City Corporation by gazette notification of BCC Act on April 4, 2001 extending it area to 30 wards in 45 square kilometer from 20 wards in 25 square kilometer areas.
The number of voters was 1, 64,950 in first BCC election held on March 20, 2003 and it was increased to 1, 79,293 in second BCC election held on August 4, 2008 and now to 2, 10,482 for upcoming Third BCC election.
(Our Correspondent)
