Dhaka, Dec 3 – Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday said the government has no complicity with the process of rejection of nomination papers filed by aspirant candidates to contest the upcoming general elections slated for December 30.“It’s up to Election Commission who will be eligible to contest the polls. We have nothing to do in this regard,” Quader said while replying to a question from a newsman at a press conference held at the AL president Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office.
Earlier, nomination papers of the jailed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and many of her party leaders were rejected by returning officers during scrutiny on Sunday.
The ROs rejected 786 of 3,065 nomination papers during scrutiny across the country on the grounds of conviction in cases, defaulted loans and non-payment of utility service bills, according to an EC statement.
Talking over the issue Quader also said, “the Election Commission has laws to cancel anyone’s nomination paper. The government has no involvement in this process. if the government had any involvement in this process, then how the nomination paper of our key ally Jatiya
party’s secretary general was rejected.”
About cancellation of Khaleda’s nomination paper, AL general secretary said the Court had earlier gave the verdict that those sentenced to over two years in jail, would not be allowed to contest the general election. “Nomination papers of many AL leaders were also cancelled,
then what else we can do,” he added.
Replying to another question, Quader said the government doesn’t want to hold a ‘lopsided’ election as their prime minister was against scoring a goal in an empty field.
“We’ll try our best so that a level playing field is not affected in any way. We don’t want to contest the election creating an uneven condition,” he said.
“We must be with people. I’ve got the responsibility [to ensure that] from an important position of the party,” he added.
Quader said they wanted to hold a credible election and no situation would be created this time as happened during the last general election because of the boycott by BNP. “We do not want the election atmosphere to be hampered in any way,” he insisted.
