Ruling Awami League will not be giving its ticket to mayors of city corporations, Zila Parishad chairpersons, and Upazila Parishad chairpersons for the 11th general election.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader told reporters on Wednesday that this was a directive from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the party president.
Sheikh Hasina further instructed all nomination seekers to work for the candidates who get the party ticket, the Awami League general secretary added.
Quader, also the road transport minister, made the statement at a press briefing held at Awami League’s Dhanmondi 3/A party office following the interviews of Awami League nomination aspirants held at Ganabhaban.
“During interviews of nomination seekers, Awami League president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina saidsitting mayors of City Corporations, municipalities, upazila and district administration chairmen will not get the party ticket this time,” Quader said.
He also said the prime minister made the decision because chairmen and mayors would have to resign from their current posts to run for parliament – which is a problem the party does not want to handle.
He added that any aspiring candidate who goes against the party decision would be expelled from Awami League.
Furthermore, Sheikh Hasina instructed party leaders on their roles in the upcoming election during the interviews.
Earlier in the morning, the interviews of nomination seekers began at Ganabhaban around 11am, although the interviews had been slated to be held at the party’s Dhanmondi office.
Obaidul Quader arrived at the Dhanmondi office at 10am, and asked the aspiring candidates to proceed to Ganabhaban for the interviews, Awami League Office SecretaryAbdus Sobhan told the Dhaka Tribune.
The ruling Awami League began selling nomination forms on November 9—a day after the Election Commission had announced the schedule for the general election.
The ruling party has increased the price of nomination papers from Tk25,000 to Tk30,000 for thegeneral polls. Despite the increase in price, a total 4,023 nomination seekers collected the forms.
The parliamentary selection board includes: Sheikh Hasina, Obaidul Quader, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Syed Ashraful Islam, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Kazi Zafarullah, Dr Alauddin Ahmed, Rashidul Alam, Dr Abdur Razzaque, Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan, and Romesh Chandra Sen.
According to a press release issued on Wednesday, the 13-member board will meet again to discuss the nominations around 3pm on Thursday.
The last date for submitting nomination forms for the 11th general election was originally November 12.
However, after Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda revised the election schedule, the last date for nomination submission was pushed back to November 28.