A total of 26 mayoral aspirants, including BNP leader Mirza Abbas and his three party colleagues and Awami League-backed candidates Sayeed Khokan, filed their nominations to contest the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) polls on Sunday, the last date for nomination submission.
Although 30 candidates collected nomination papers to vie for the DSCC mayoral post, three of them — independent MP and AL leader Haji Selim, Sayedur Rahman Manik and pro-BNP professional leader Selim Bhuiyan — did not submit those. The submission deadline expired at 5pm.The returning officer did not accept the nomination paper of a candidate, Syed Shah Alam, for not following the due process and making mistakes in filling up the form.
Sayeed Khokan himself submitted his nomination paper while BNP leader Mirza Abbas’ two lawyers filed his nomination.
Wives of BNP leaders Abdus Salam and Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu submitted their nomination papers on their husband’s behalf.
Only one BNP leader, Asaduz Zaman Ripon, the party’s international affairs secretary, himself submitted his nomination paper to the DSCC returning officer Mihir Sarwar Morshed around 4pm.
Adv AKM Shahjahan and adv Abdus Salam, on behalf of Mirza Abbas, submitted the nomination paper to DSCC returning officer Mihir Sarwar Morshed around 4pm.
“We expect that the election will be cent percent fair, and the government will must ensure the rule of law to hold the election in a free and fair manner,’’ adv Salam told reporters.
Replying to a question whether BNP will back Mirza Abbas as the party’s mayoral candidate, he said, “There’s still time. We’ve just submitted nomination papers. The candidate who will get support from the party will contest the polls in favour of it.”
Earlier in the day, ruling Awami League-backed mayoral contender Sayeed Khokan submitted his nomination paper to vie for the mayoral post in the DSCC polls.
Khokan along with Awami League leaders and activists, including Abdur Razzak, Fazle Noor Taposh and Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, submitted the nomination paper to DSCC returning officer Mihir Sarwar Morshed around 12:25am at Mohanagar Natya Mancha in the city.
Asked whether it is violation of the election code of conduct as he came to submit the nomination papers with a good number of party men, Khokan said the people seen with them were supporters of different councillor candidates.
The other mayoral candidates submitted their nominations to Mihir Sarwar on Sunday include Baharan-e-Sultan Bahar, ASM Akram, Babul Sardar, Shaheen Khan, Dilip Bhadra and Shohidul Islam.
Four more mayoral hopefuls also submitted nomination papers earlier to Mihir Sarwar.
Though BNP has picked Mirza Abbas as a mayoral candidate for the DSCC polls, the party is still pursuing a go-slow-process to come up with a formal announcement for some strategic reasons.
BNP sources said three other BNP leaders will withdraw their nomination after party announces its support to Abbas.
On March 18, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad announced the election schedules for DSCC, DNCC and CCC fixing voting on April 28.
According to the schedules, the deadline for submission of nomination papers is March 29 while the nomination papers will be scrutinised on April 1 and 2 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 9. – UNB
