Billboards, banners and posters of aspiring parliamentary candidates are still on display in Dhaka despite a directive of the Election Commission to take them down by Thursday night.
During a visit to the city’s Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Bijoy Sarani and Farmgate areas on Friday, there were still many unremoved campaign materials flouting the electoral code of conduct. There are allegations that some candidates have even replaced old materials with new ones.
The EC on Friday asked the metropolitan police commissioner, the district police super and the returning officer to prepare a list of the code violators, officials said, adding that “stern action” would be taken against them if found guilty.
Earlier, the commission asked political parties and aspiring candidates to take down all their advertising materials by Thursday night. It also said the costs of removing those would have to be borne by those responsible for them.
Mohammad Shah Alam, a senior election officer of Dhaka, said the commission had instructed the authorities of metropolitan police and city corporations to remove all campaign materials as soon as possible. “It would take stern action against anyone found guilty of violating the code.”
EC officials also sounded similar cautions and said show-cause notices would be sent to the violators once the deadline for filing nomination papers was over.
According to section 12 of the code of conduct, political parties or their nominated candidates and independent candidates or any person on their behalf, can launch electoral campaigns starting three weeks prior to the scheduled voting day.
A violation of the code would be considered an offence punishable by up to six months in prison or up to Tk50,000 in fine, or both. If the offender is a political party, the maximum punishment is a fine of Tk50,000.
The 10th parliamentary polls are scheduled to be held on January 5. The last day for filing nomination papers is December 2 while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 13. The returning officers of the commission will scrutinise nomination papers on December 5-6.