The Awami League has given its party tickets to 48 candidates for the 50 reserved seats (women) in the 12th Parliament following interviews with nomination aspirants at Ganabhaban in Dhaka, said the party’s general secretary.
Obaidul Quader further said the party chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina first interviewed the aspirants and then chaired a meeting of the party’s parliamentary nomination board in this regard on Wednesday to select the candidates.
“After scrutinizing the nomination forms of 1,553 hopefuls, we picked 48 candidates,” he told reporters after the meeting.
The candidates are: Rezia Islam (Panchagarh), Drupodi Debi Agarwal (Thakurgaon), Ashika Sultana (Nilphamari), Rokeya Sultana (Joypurhat), Koheli Quddus Mukti (Natore), Zara Jebin Mahmub (Chapainawabganj), Runu Reza (Khulna), Farida Akter Banu (Bagerhat), Farzana Sumi (Barguna), Khaleda Bahar Beauty (Bhola), Naznin Nahar Radhid (Patuakhali), Farida Yasmin (Narsingdi), Ummi Farzana Sattar (Mymensingh), Nadia Binte Amin (Netrakona), Mahfuza Sultana Molly (Joypurhat), Parvin Zaman Kalpana (Jhenaidah), Aroma Dutta (Comilla), Laila Parvin (Satkhira), Begum Monnujan Sufian (Khulna), Bedowra Ahmed Salam (Gopalganj), Shabnam Jahan (Dhaka), Parul Akter (Dhaka), Sabera Begum (Dhaka), Shammi Ahmed (Barisal), Nahid Izhar Khan (Dhaka), Jhorna Hasan (Faridpur), Fazilatunnesa Indira (Munshiganj), Shahida Tarekh Dipti (Dhaka), Anima Mukti Gomez (Dhaka), Sheikh Anar Koli Putul (Dhaka), Masuda Siddique Rozy (Narsingdi), Tarana Halim (Tangail), Shamsun Nahar (Tangail), Meher Afroz Chumki (Gazipur), Aparajita Haq (Tangail), Hasina Bari Chowdhury (Dhaka), Nazma Akter (Gopalganj), Ruma Chakrabarti (Sylhet), Faridunnesa Laili (Lakshmipur), Ashrafunnesa (Lakshmipur), Kanon Ara Begum (Noakhali), Shamima Harun Lubna (Chittagong), Farida Khanom (Noakhali), Dilwara Yusuf (Chittagong), Waseqa Ayesha Khan (Chittagong), Dorothy Tanchangya (Rangamati), Danjida Khanom (Dhaka) and Nasima Jaman Boby (Rangpur).
Of them, Kanon Ara Begum has been selected as a candidate from the 14-party alliance.
As many as 1,549 candidates sought nomination from the Awami League, meaning there were 32 aspirants for each seat.
The Awami League started selling nomination forms, each priced at Tk50,000, on February 6. At the end of the distribution of nomination papers on February 8, Obaidul Quader told a press conference that the party had earned Tk77,450,000 through sales of the forms.
In comparison, during the 11th parliament elections, 1,510 female candidates collected nomination forms from the Awami League when the price of the form was Tk30,000.
The nomination forms for the 12th Parliament will have to be submitted to the Election Commission (EC) on February 18. The EC will scrutinize them on February 19 and 20.
The election to the reserved seats will be held on March 14.
