The High Court yesterday rejected a writ petition filed by BNP leader Abdul Awal Mintoo challenging the cancellation of his nomination for the upcoming Dhaka north city polls.
The HC bench of Justice Sarah Mahbub and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque passed the order after hearing on the petition in the afternoon. Mintoo’s attorney AKM Ahsanur Rahman filed the petition a day before.
With the passing of this judgement, Mintoo, BNP's only choice in the north, is now officially out of the mayoral race.
On April 1, the first day of nomination scrutiny, the Returning Officer Shah Alam of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) polls disqualified Mintoo on the ground that his nominator and seconder were not voters of that part of Dhaka. His appeal to the EC against that decision was rejected on Saturday.
The certified copy of Mintoo’s nomination cancellation reads that Abdur Razzaque, who supported Mintoo’s nomination, was a voter of Uttara 13 under Harirampur union, which is outside the DNCC area.
According to the city election rules, the returning officer may disqualify a mayoral aspirant for a number of reasons including section 14 that deals with this issue.
A candidature may be cancelled if the returning officer deems that person ineligible, or if the aspirant has not duly submitted the affidavit or if there has been a violation in the process of nominating the candidate. Two of those points explicitly deal with the eligibility of the “proposer” and the “seconder.”
Former FBCCI president Mintoo is also an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
The EC has however accepted his son Tabith M Awal's nomination papers for the same mayoral race.