Dhaka, Dec 7 – The major opposition BNP on Friday announced names of its candidates for 206 constituencies keeping the rest 94 seats open to discuss with partners of the both the Jatiya Oikya Front and 20-party alliance to share among them to contest the forthcoming general elections with the sheaf of paddy.BNP secretary general and spokesperson of Jatiya Oikya Front Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement of the final party nomination at a press conference at chairperson’s political office in Gulshan in the evening.
The candidates of alliance partners in the Jatiya Oikya Front and 20-party alliance will be announced on Saturday, he said.
The BNP secretary general said that they are taking part in an adverse situation as part of their movement to restore the country’s democracy and free Khaleda Zia from jail.
He said they are requesting its multiple candidates, except those, were nominated, to withdraw their candidacy within the last date for withdrawal of candidature on December 9.
The BNP handed over nomination letters more than one candidates in most of the 300 constituencies in a bid to field a proxy candidate if its priority candidates lost their candidatures.
Indeed, those who will get the party letter to receive poll symbol ultimately will be the party candidates.
BNP chairperson’s private secretary ABM Abdus Sattar was present at the press conference.
Meanwhile, the Jatiya Oikya Front which was scheduled to announce the alliance candidate yesterday postponed it yesterday what the leaders said for an unavoidable reason.
General secretary of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) Abdul Malek Ratan said they postponed the announcement as the BNP could not reach an understanding with the 20-party alliance partners over seat sharing.
He said the Oikya Front now will announce its candidates through a press conference at its new office at Zaman Tower at Purana Paltan sometimes today.
Another Oikya Front leaders preferring anonymity said the BNP may share 15 to 20 seats among its partners in the new political alliance.
The BNP had handed over 822 nomination papers among its aspirants; of them, 696 BNP contestants submitted their nomination papers for 295 parliamentary constituencies.
Of them, the returning officers rejected around 80 candidates of the BNP-led 20-party alliance including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on various ground. Later disposing of the appeals from the aggrieved aspirants, the Election Commission cleared many candidates of the BNP. – Staff Reporter
