Sayeed Khokon, son of first elected mayor of Dhaka city Mohoammad Hanif, and lawmaker Haji Mohammad Selim have collected the nomination forms to contest in the upcoming Dhaka South City Corporation elections.
Both the Awami League leaders bought the nomination papers from the Returning office of Dhaka South City Corporation on Tuesday.
Khokon, the organising secretary of Dhaka city unit Awami League, collected the form around 12 noon while Haji Selim, the joint secretary of the same committee, collected his form at 1:15pm.
After collecting the nomination form, Selim told the journalists: “I believe that the party will choose me finally as I have decided to contest in the polls as per the demands of the city dwellers.”
While talking to journalists, another aspirant Khokon, who has officially been nominated by the party chief Sheikh Hasina for the mayoral race, alleged that voters were being “threatened with arms and muscle power.”
Indirectly indicating Haji Selim, he said: “Many have started the campaign earlier, violating the electoral code of conduct.”
Selim became an independent member of parliament after he defeated his party-sponsored candidate in the January 5 national elections last year.
He is running the election campaign against Sayeed Khokon who has already obtained Hasina's green signal.
Many of Dhaka City Unit Awami League leaders have voiced their discontent against party-backed candidate Khokon.
On Monday at the cabinet meeting several ministers expressed their dissatisfaction over the choice of mayoral candidate for the DSCC.
They also asked the party leadership to field a stronger candidate instead of Sayeed Khokan.
However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave them a patient hearing saying nothing over the matter, said an Awami League leader who attended the meeting.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan at the meeting raised question over the party-backed candidate for the DSCC while Food Minister Quamrul Islam lent his support for the party choice.
It is, however, still uncertain whether the party will back Sayeed Khokon or not.
Khokon said: “I have complete confidence on the Election Commission. I expect it would take action against those who violate the code of conduct,” Khokon said.
Regarding the allegations of loan defaults against him, Khokon said “I'm not a loan defaulter as I have paid all the loans I had.”
Nine mayoral candidates, 525 councilor candidates and 102 reserved women councilor candidates have collected nomination forms for DSCC election so far, Mihir Sarwar Morshed, Returning officer of DSCC election and also the Regional Election Officer of Dhaka confirmed.
The city corporation polls for the divided Dhaka city and Chittagong City Corporations are scheduled to be held on 28 April. The last day for submitting nomination forms is March 29, and the last date of withdrawing nomination papers is April 9.
