Dhaka Bureau: Thursday is the last day to submit the nomination papers of potential candidates to the returning officers for the 12th National Assembly elections. If the Election Commission does not make any changes to the election schedule, no one will have a chance to be a candidate after 4 p.m. today. In many places, potential candidates showed up and submitted nominations, but no effective action was taken. The calculation of how many candidates from registered parties want to participate in this election can also be known by the end of the day. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be completed between 1st and 4th December.
An appeal against the returning officer’s decision can be made to the Election Commission from December 6 to 9. The appeal will be disposed of from December 10 to 15. And the last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 17th. The next day, December 18, official campaigning will begin after the allotment of symbols to the candidates. Promotions can be run until January 5th at 8 a.m. Voting will be held on January 7.
According to the calculations of the Election Commission, 28 parties are going to participate in this election. These 28 parties have written to the Election Commission and informed them that their party’s signature will be given to candidate nominations.
Ashok Kumar Debnath, Additional Secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat, said in this regard yesterday evening that we have received letters from 28 parties till Wednesday. All 39 political parties registered at that time, including the Awami League, BNP, and Jatiya Party-Japa, took part in the 11th National Parliament election held in 2018.
Demand for postponement of schedule: For several days, talks and rumors were going on in various quarters regarding the re-schedule. In particular, the opposition leader and Jatiya Party-Zapa’s main patron, Roshan Ershad, met the president and demanded the rescheduling of the elections. However, the EC has not yet announced any final decision regarding the rescheduling.
Meanwhile, 18 candidates have submitted their nomination papers to the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner and Returning Office from yesterday morning to afternoon to participate in the 12th National Assembly elections. Dhaka Divisional Commissioner and Returning Officer, Md. Sabirul Islam, gave this information. He said six people from the Awami League, three people from the Jatiya Party (ZA), four people from the National People’s Party (NPP), one person from the Jatiya Party (JP), two people from the Zaker Party, and two people from the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JAS) have submitted a total of 18 nominations. Apart from this, a total of six candidates submitted their nominations throughout the day on Tuesday.
Submission of nominations in violation of the code of conduct: complaints of submission of nominations in violation of the code of conduct have been reported in various parts of the country. Even though many candidates submitted their nominations to the office of the returning officer, the EC did not take any action.
MPs don’t have to resign if they are independent candidates. The Election Commission (EC) has said that those MPs who did not get party nominations this time do not have to resign as independent candidates. The Election Commission received this information in a circular on Wednesday. In the context of creating confusion around the speech of Election Commissioner Rasheda Begum in Rajshahi, the EC issued this notification clarifying the matter with a legal explanation.
Election Commission Director (Public Relations), Md. In the notification signed by Shariful Alam, the EC said that, whether it is a party, a non-party, or a reserved seat for women, candidates can be nominated for the post of parliamentarian.
