The Election Commission (EC) has declared Nusrat Tabassum, the nominated candidate of the 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami and joint convener of the NCP, elected unopposed to a reserved women’s seat in the 13th Parliament.
The EC also said a gazette notification in this regard will be published very soon.
Reserved women’s seat Returning Officer and EC Joint Secretary Md Moin Uddin Khan confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Monday.
Moin said: “As there was only one candidate for one seat, we have declared Nusrat Tabassum elected unopposed from the office of the returning officer. We have sent the documents to the commission. The process of publishing the gazette declaring her elected is underway.”
It is learnt that the EC cancelled the nomination paper of another NCP candidate from the Jamaat alliance, Monira Sharmin, as three years had not passed since her resignation from government service.
Following that, Nusrat Tabassum submitted her nomination paper in haste on April 21, 19 minutes after the 4pm deadline for submission. The returning officer did not accept it.
Nusrat then moved the court. The court directed the Election Commission to accept her nomination paper and take further steps in accordance with the law. After that, the agency accepted her nomination paper and, following scrutiny, declared it valid.
Meanwhile, Monira Sharmin filed a writ petition in court seeking to regain her candidacy and also wrote to the Election Commission, asking that Nusrat’s gazette notification not be published until the court hearing is completed.
However, on Monday, a High Court bench expressed unwillingness to hear the writ petition challenging the legality of the decision to cancel Monira Sharmin’s candidacy. As one of the judges of the bench and the writ petitioner are from the same village, the writ was sent to another bench for hearing. The writ has been placed on Tuesday’s cause list for hearing.
Earlier in the afternoon, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said on the matter, “We have not received any information from the court so far (this afternoon). Monira Sharmin’s letter does not matter. We will wait until this evening. If no information regarding her matter comes by then, we will publish the gazette in the name of Nusrat Tabassum.”