Dhaka, Dec 27 – Awami League and BNP are expected to finalise candidates for Dhaka South and Dhaka North City elections on Saturday. Both the party sources said the aspirant candidates who want to get the tickets from the parties to contest the polls have already submitted their applications to the parties.
Many aspiring candidates collected party nomination forms on the last day of sale of forms on Friday from Awami League’s Dhanmondi party office and BNP’s Naya Paltan office.
At least 20 Awami League leaders collected party forms for Mayoral posts so far to get party nod to contest the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) polls. At least 12 forms have been collected for DNCC mayoral post while eight forms for DSCC mayoral post.
Besides, at least 1,254 forms were collected from the party to contest the councillor posts in both DNCC and DSCC elections.
Party sources said incumbent mayor Atiqul Islam, joint general secretary of Bangabandhu Foundation Shahidul Osmani, vice-president of Bhasantek Thana Awami League Major (retd) Yad Ali Fakir, Jaman Bhuiyan, Kutubuddin Nannu, Mohammad Idris Ali Molla, Alauddin Mohammad, Zerin Sultana Kanta, Helena Jahangir, Adam Tamiji Haque, Khairul Majid and Rehena Farhad Ivy submitted nomination forms to be the mayoral candidate for DNCC elections.
For DSCC elections, incumbent mayor Sayeed Khokon, lawmaker Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Haji Mohammad Selim, AL incumbent law affairs secretary Nazibullah Hiru, president of Bangabandhu Academy Nazmul Haque, former secretary-general of Muktijoddha central command council MA Rashid, Ashraf Hossain Siddique and Haji Abu Hasnat submitted their nomination forms.
Party sources said the candidates would be selected at the AL local government nomination board headed by its president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina at Gonobhaban at 6 pm today.
The Board would pick up the mayoral candidates and 172 councillor aspirants giving emphasis on clean image, party sources said.
On the other hand, three leaders of BNP yesterday submitted their applications to its party joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at the BNP party office at Naya Paltan.
The applicants are BNP central committee special secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon and central executive body member Tabith Awal submitted applications to be candidate to contest for DNCC polls while former Dhaka City Corporation Mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka’s son Ishraq Hossain submitted forms to contest DSCC.
BNP chairperson’s press wing member Shairul Kabir Khan said the candidates for the elections would be selected at the party parliamentary board meeting at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital on Saturday evening.
BNP party sources said Ishraq Hossain is the sole candidate at the DSCC as no other candidates applied to be the candidates to contest the mayoral election. On the other hand, Tabith Awal and Asaduzzaman Ripon are the aspiring candidates for the DNCC mayoral election.
As per Election Commission, the last date of submission of nominations is on 31 December while the returning officers would scrutinise the forms on January 2. The last date of withdrawing the nominations would be on 9 January and the date of the voting is on 30 December.
The election will begin at 8 am and will continue till 4 pm without any break. EC said this is the first time they would hold the DNCC and DSCC polls through the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
