73 more regain candidacy on fifth day of EC appeal hearings

The Election Commission (EC) restored the candidacies of another 73 aspirants on Wednesday, the fifth day of appeal hearings challenging returning officers’ decisions on nomination papers for the 13th parliamentary polls.

EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said that a total of 100 appeals were heard during the day’s proceedings. Of those, 73 were approved, 17 rejected, and 10 were kept pending.

With the new figures, the commission has so far approved a total of 276 appeals.

Appeals numbered 281 to 380 were held on the day. The hearings were conducted by the full commission under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin.

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.