Forty-two aspirants have so far appealed to the Election Commission
against the cancellation of their nominations by the returning officers
till Saturday.
During the two-day scrutiny that began on Thursday, the returning
officers cancelled nominations of 260 candidates keeping 847 valid for
the polls scheduled for January 5, according to the commission’s draft
list of valid candidates.
Of 847 valid candidates, seven candidates, mostly from Jatiya Party,
have applied to the returning officer to withdraw their candidature.
The candidates will be able to appeal against the decision of returning
officers until Monday while the commission will hear the appeals in
December 10-12, additional secretary of the commission Sirajul Islam
told newsmen on Saturday.
After the scrutiny, at least 33 ruling Awami League candidates, six of
them are ministers, are likely to be elected unopposed in the 10th
parliamentary elections as they have emerged single candidates for the
constituencies.
Commission officials said that the number of candidates to be elected
unopposed might increase after the withdrawal of candidature on December
13.
According to the commission’s draft list of valid candidates, a total of 102 constituencies have only two valid candidates.
The commission officials said that if Jatiya Party withdrew its
candidates from the elections, the number of constituencies where there
would have only one candidate would stand 110.
There has been no valid candidate for the Lakshmipur 3 constituency as
the commission cancelled the nomination of both the candidates,
including the one from the ruling Awami League.
A total of 1,107 candidates from 20 political parties, mostly belonging
to the Awami League-led ruling alliance, submitted nominations for the
10th parliamentary elections with most of the political parties,
including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance,
boycotting the polls.
The validly nominated candidates can withdraw their nomination by December 13. (source)