Expulsion from party alone can’t cost MP his seat: EC

The Election Commission said on Thursday it cannot strip Satkhira-4 MP Gazi Nazrul Islam of his parliamentary seat simply because Jamaat-e-Islami has expelled him, leaving his political fate in limbo a day after the party sacked him over a viral video showing him with a woman he later described as his second wife.
“The Election Commission has no scope to take action on that basis,” Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud told journalists at the Election Building in Agargaon, referring to Jamaat’s expulsion letter. 
“However, if a member voluntarily resigns from the party, the parliamentary seat becomes vacant.”
He described the question of whether an MP should lose his seat on the strength of an expulsion letter alone as “a controversial issue,” adding that the commission would only examine the matter if the Jatiya Sangsad speaker formally referred it. 
“If the Speaker refers the matter to us, we will review the dispute, hold a hearing if necessary and then make a decision,” he said.
Nazrul Islam won the Satkhira-4 seat in the 13th parliamentary election on 12 February on Jamaat’s “Scales” symbol. Controversy erupted on Monday night when a video of him in an intimate moment with a woman circulated on Facebook. 
Jamaat leaders initially dismissed the footage as AI-generated, but Nazrul Islam himself posted on Tuesday that the woman was his second wife. 
At an emergency meeting on Wednesday at Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman’s official residence on Minto Road, Jamaat’s Central Executive Council expelled him as a Majlis-e-Shura member, citing an internal investigation that found evidence of moral misconduct. 
He was removed under Article 62 of the party constitution, and Jamaat resolved to inform the Election Commission immediately.
Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar subsequently wrote to Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed and separately to Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, seeking action against the MP. 
Porwar’s letter said the expulsion had been decided unanimously and asked the speaker to take “necessary action” on the matter.
Meanwhile, another video showing Gazi Nazrul Islam in a rather intimate situation with a young woman in a residential hotel lobby went viral on social media on Thursday, adding fresh pressure on the beleaguered MP even as the constitutional question over his seat remained unresolved.
The constitutional picture is not straightforward. Article 70 states that a party nominee’s seat becomes vacant only if he resigns from the party or votes against it in parliament – it is silent on what happens when a party expels a member instead. Article 66 allows the Speaker to refer questions of an MP’s disqualification to the Election Commission, and provides that any dispute over a seat falling vacant under Article 70 must be settled by the commission, whose ruling is final.