1st phase of appeals: EC declares 51 nominations valid, rejects 16

The Election Commission today (10 January) began hearing appeals filed against decisions of returning officers over the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers for the upcoming election scheduled for 12 February, restoring 51 candidatures in the first phase while rejecting 16 others.

Three appeals remain pending.

The hearings were held at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka's Agargaon, presided over by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin along with the four other commissioners.

Among those whose nominations were restored were Tasnim Jara, former National Citizen Party (NCP) leader contesting as an independent in Dhaka-9; Rashed Prodhan, spokesperson of the National Democratic Party (Jagpa), contesting in Panchagarh-1 and Panchagarh-2; and AHM Hamidur Rahman, Jamaat-e-Islami's central assistant secretary general, running in Cox's Bazar-2.

EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said, "A total of 52 appeal petitions were accepted on the first day, including one filed by BNP candidate MA Hannan of Brahmanbaria-1 challenging the acceptance of an independent candidate's nomination."

With the EC's decision, independent candidate SAK Ekramuzzaman lost his candidature.

Meanwhile, several nominations were cancelled following appeal hearings, including those of independent candidates Md Ilias Mia (Cox's Bazar-3), Abdur Rouf Molla (Khulna-3), Md Mohiuddin Hawlader alias Mohiuddin Rony (Dhaka-18), and Md Mostafa Mohsin (Gaibandha-1).

Jatiya Party candidate Md Manjum Ali's appeal for Rangpur-1 was also rejected due to a dual citizenship issue.

Speaking to media, Jatiya Party Secretary General Shameem Haider Patwary said, "We filed appeals against the cancellation of 25 nominations, and 12 were heard today. Out of these, 10 appeals have been granted. We will move to the High Court regarding the two that were rejected."

He further added, "The commission is conducting the hearings quite neutrally. We hope they maintain this same neutrality on the election field."

The appeal hearings began at 10am today and will continue until 18 January.

During the five-day appeal filing period, a total of 645 appeals were submitted to the commission. At least 70 appeals were scheduled for hearing on the first day.

Earlier, returning officers declared 1,842 nomination papers valid and 723 invalid following scrutiny conducted from 30 December to 4 January.

During the scrutiny, the nomination paper of Tasnim Jara for Dhaka-9 was rejected on ground of inconsistency in the required 1% of voter signatures to qualify for nomination, while that of Hamidur Rahman candidate for Cox's Bazar-2 (Maheshkhali-Kutubdia) was turned down due to case related issues.

A total of 2,568 aspirants submitted nomination papers for the country's 300 constituencies by the 29 December deadline to contest the 13th parliamentary election.

The commission on 11 December last year announced the election schedule to arrange the national election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on 12 February.

According to the schedule, the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is 20 January. The election campaign will start on 22 January and continue till 48 hours before the balloting period (7:30am on 10 February).