Ahead of only 33 days from the third Barisal City Corporation (BCC) election scheduled to be held on June 15, the submission of nomination papers ended on Sunday.
Among the 199 nomination papers submitted, six were for the mayoral post, 145 were for general councillor seats and the remainder were for the reserved councillor seats.
Outgoing mayor and city Awami League president Shawkat Hossain Hiron – backed by the Awami League, Juba League leader Mahmudur Rahman Khan, city BNP secretary, advocate Kamrul Hasan Shahin, former mayor and district (south) BNP president Ahsan Habib Kamal and former district BNP secretary Ebaidul Huq Chan submitted their nomination papers for the mayoral post.
Meanwhile, district CPB president Abul Kalam Azad refrained from submitting his nomination in favour of the 14-party alliance.
Though three candidates of the BNP have submitted nomination papers, the party is yet to decide its official candidate. The BNP mayor candidates said the party would nominate its candidate before the last date of withdrawing nomination papers.
Mujibur Rahman, Khulna regional election commissioner and returning officer for the BCC election, said after scrutiny of the submitted nomination papers on May 15 and 16, a final list of candidates would be published on May 26, ending the withdrawal deadline.
Meanwhile, the election office has formed a six-member vigilance and observation committee to monitor allegations of violating election conduct rules.
A total of 210,482 voters are expected to cast their votes in the upcoming BCC election.