Dhaka Bureau: The deadline for withdrawing nomination papers for reserved seats for women in the 12th National Parliament is 4 p.m. today (Sunday, February 25). Thereafter, the list of MPs from reserved women’s constituencies won unopposed will be drawn in the office of the returning officer. And with the permission of the Election Commission, the list of the names of the 50 MPs in the reserved seats will be sent to BG Press tomorrow for publication in gazette form, said the returning officer and joint secretary of the EC, Moniruzzaman Talukder. He said the gazette will be published by BG Press tomorrow night itself.
He told the media on Saturday (February 24) that all the nomination papers of 50 candidates submitted for the 12th National Parliament’s reserved seats for women have been declared valid after verification. Today (Sunday) is the last day for the withdrawal of nominations. We’ll see if anyone withdraws by 4 p.m. tomorrow, although it’s unlikely. After 4 p.m., I will publish the list of unopposed MPs in the returning officer’s office.
According to the schedule, the appeal against the EC’s decision was until February 22. The appeal disposal day was Saturday. And the last time to withdraw the candidature is at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
The election commission had scheduled the polling day for 50 reserved female seats for March 14. On February 18, the time for submission of nomination papers was fixed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., during which the same number of nominations were submitted in 50 constituencies. Although polling day has been set for March 14, there is no need for polling as there is no chance for anyone to be a candidate outside the nomination.
The 50 candidates will be declared unopposed and gazetted on Sunday after the deadline for the withdrawal of nomination papers. In this case, there will be no need to allocate symbols on February 27.
In this regard, EC Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told the media that it was only a formality. An equal number of nomination papers are submitted to the concerned returning officer for the election of 50 reserved women MPs in the 12th National Parliament. All have been selected and declared valid. A total of 50 nomination papers have been declared valid, including two from the Jatiya Party and 48 from the Awami League and its coalition. No complaint has been received against any of the nomination papers.
They will be declared unopposed tomorrow and sent to BG Press for publication in gazette form. They may publish the gazette tomorrow itself. He said we will send the gazette to the speaker’s office at the parliament secretariat as soon as it is published.
Meanwhile, the day after the publication of the gazette, next Monday (February 26), will be a Shabbat holiday, and the Parliament Secretariat will also be closed on that day. That is why the Parliament Secretariat has confirmed that the MPs in these 50 reserved women’s seats will be sworn in next Tuesday (February 27) morning. MPs from reserved seats will attend the parliament session on that day.
