Dhaka, Dec 20 – BNP on Tuesday demanded of the Election Commission (EC) either allow alternative candidates or reschedule the election date for those constituencies where BNP candidates have been declared illegal by the High Court.“Already, our eight candidates have been declared illegal by the court. We declared one candidate for each constituency who were declared legal by the EC. If these candidates are declared illegal now, who’ll take the responsibility?,” BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan wanted to know.
The BNP leader came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after a meeting with the CEC and its other officials at Nirbachan Bhaban here.
When the Election Commission declared them legal, the court is declaring them illegal. If there was any mistake it was done by the EC, he said.
“We’ve proposed the Election Commission two things — either allow us to field alternative candidates to those constituencies where BNP candidates have been declared illegal by the court or reschedule the election there,” he said.
The Election Commission heard our complaints and said they will take a decision in this regard soon, he said.
The High Court declared eight BNP aspirants illegal who were earlier declared qualified by the returning officers and the Election Commission. The eight aspirants filed nominations for Jamalpur-4, Bagura-3, Brahmanbaria-4, Rangpur-1, Mymensingh-8, Jhenaidah-2, Joypurhat-1 and Rajshahi-6.
BNP Vice-Chairman Selima Rahman, Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, BNP Chairperson’s Adviser Bijan Kanti Sarker were present.
Earlier the High Court on Thursday stayed the candidature of nine aspirants, including 6 BNP candidates, of the 11th national election as they didn’t resign from the posts of Upazila chairmen ahead of contesting the national election.
The HC-bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam came up with the orders following writs filed by other candidates.
Now, it has become uncertain whether they would be able to contest the election, said Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain Saju.
Earlier, their nominations were rejected by the returning officers.
After filing appeals with Election Commission, they got back their candidature.
The candidates are—Faridul KabirTalukderShamim of Jamalpur-4 (BNP), Abdul Muhit Talukder of Bogura-3 (BNP), Md Muslim Uddin of Brahmanbaria-4 (BNP), Advocate Abdul Majid of Jhenaidah-2 (BNP), Fazlur Rahman of Joypurhat-1, Abu Sayeed Chand of Rajshahi-6 (BNP), Bashirullah Juru of Brahmanbaria ( Independent), Mahmud Hasan Sumon of Mymensingh-8 ( Awami League’s rival) and Md Asaduzzaman of Rangpur-1 (Awami League’s rival). – UNB
