AL, BNP in frantic search for alternative candidates
Courtesy New Age 5/12/08
Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party were on Thursday planning to pick up alternative candidates for electoral constituencies where the Election Commission cancelled nominations of the candidates of the two parties.
The parties are monitoring where nominations of their candidates have been cancelled and looking for replacements, if needed from outside the respective parties, as a last-ditch effort to stay in the contest for such constituencies.
The parties are also weighing the idea of picking up influential candidates of like-minded parties before December 11, the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers, if the Election Commission finally rejects appeals filed against cancellation of candidatures.
A section of aspirants for nomination of the two parties and their supporters, on the other hand, continued protests against nominations for a good number of electoral constituencies across the country.
The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Wednesday said that registered political parties must confirm their final candidates to returning officers by December 4, but for alliances the deadline was being relaxed until December 11.
‘Our candidates will file appeals with the Election Commission against the cancellations, if there are any. We have alternative candidates, to accommodate, if necessary, in many constituencies’, BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said Thursday.
‘If there is no alternative candidate of the party for a certain constituency, we will support the candidate of a partner of the alliance there’, he said.
The party has started looking for alternative candidates, and, in some cases candidates of like-minded parties, to contest the polls with the BNP’s electoral symbol ‘sheaf of paddy’, said party leaders, who were working closely with the nomination board headed by party chief Khaleda Zia.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was personally supervising possible changes as the returning officers cancelled nomination papers of a number of candidates of the party and partners of the alliance while examining the papers in last two days.
Syed Ashraful Islam, spokesperson of Awami League, said, ‘The party candidates will file appeal against cancellation of candidature. But we have alternative arrangements. Alternative candidates are there.’
United News of Bangladesh reported that the returning officers concerned had so far cancelled nomination of several BNP candidates, and, in some cases, alternative candidates.
They are – Chittaging-5: Giasuddin Kader Chowdhury, Chittagong-16: Mostafa Kamal Pasha and Mostafa Kamal Pasha Babul, Comilla-4: Mosammat Majeda Ahsan, Jhalakati-1: Rafiqul Islam Jamal, Dhaka-11: Shahabuddin Ahmed, Chandpur-4: Harunur Rashid, Faridpur-4: Shah Alam Reza, Narayanganj-4: Mohammad Giasuddin and Chittagong-4: SM Fazlul Haq.
The EC cancelled candidature of several Awami League and Jatiya Party candidates, and, in some cases, alternative candidates.
They are – Pabna-2: retired air vice marshal AK Khandaker (convener of the Sector Commanders Forum), Feni- 2: Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Noakhali- 6: Mohammad Ali, Habiganj-3: HM Ershad, Netrakona-2: Fakir Ashraf, Kurigram-4: Golam Habib Dulal, and Chittagong-9: Morshed Murad Ibrahim.
In Faridpur, a section of BNP activists on Thursday held a rally in front of district press club protesting at the nomination of Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid as the BNP-led alliance candidate for Faridpur-2 constituency, according to our correspondent.
They also burnt the effigy of Mojahid.
The protesters demanded that the BNP nominate its vice-chairman Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf for the constituency.
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They also demanded that the Awami League should nominate Dr Anwar Hossain for the constituency.
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