53 more regain candidacy on fourth day of EC appeal hearings

The Election Commission (EC) restored the candidacies of another 53 aspirants on Tuesday, the fourth day of appeal hearings challenging returning officers’ decisions on nomination papers for the 13th parliamentary polls.

Confirming the figures on reinstated candidacies, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said that a total of 70 appeals were heard on the fourth day. Of these, 53 were approved, and 17 others were rejected.

Overall, after four days of appeal hearings, 203 individuals have regained their candidacies, according to EC officials.

On Tuesday, appeal hearings began at 10am at the auditorium (Basement-2) of the Election Commission Building in Agargaon, Dhaka. 

After a one-hour break at noon, hearings continued until 4pm, presided over by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, with the full commission in attendance.

Hearings of appeals numbered 211 to 280 were held on the day. 

On Monday, the commission approved 41 appeals, rejected 24, and kept four pending. It also said one appeal pending on Sunday was approved on Monday.

In addition, independent candidate Shakila Farzana, who was contesting the Chattogram-5 constituency, withdrew her appeal on Monday.

On Sunday, the Election Commission approved 58 appeal applications. Seven applications were rejected and six were kept pending.

On the first day, Saturday, out of 70 appeals, 52 were approved, 15 were rejected, and three were kept pending. Among them, one appeal against the acceptance of a candidate’s nomination was approved.

In total, 645 appeal applications have been filed with the Election Commission against returning officers’ decisions made during the scrutiny of nomination papers.

On the final day of scrutiny, 4 January, returning officers or assistant returning officers in 300 constituencies declared 1,842 nomination papers valid and rejected 723 others out of a total of 2,568 nomination papers submitted for the parliamentary election.

On 11 December, the Election Commission announced the schedule to arrange the 13th national election and the referendum on the July National Charter on 12 February.

According to the schedule, the commission will settle the appeals by 18 January.

The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is 20 January. The election campaign will start on 22 January and continue until 7:30am on 10 February.