On the last day of scrutiny yesterday, election officials in Dhaka disqualified 120 general and 12 reserved female ward councillor aspirants in the two city corporations
Of the general bidders, 32 are for the north city polls and 88 for the south. All the 12 reserved female councillor aspirants whose nomination papers were cancelled yesterday are from the north.
On Wednesday – the first day of scrutiny – officials finished filtering nomination papers from all the mayoral candidates in the two city corporations and those from the female councillor aspirants in the south.
After two days of scrutiny, in which police played a key role for the first time in history, the Election Commission has cleared 42 mayoral, 963 general councillor and 254 reserved female councillor candidates for the two city corporation polls in the capital.
This means that in the April 28 polls in the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), 19 people will run for mayor, 446 for general and 113 for reserved female councillor.
In the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) polls, 23 people will run for mayor, 517 for general councillors and 141 for female councillor seats.
The list of disqualified in the two city corporations in Dhaka includes five mayoral, 166 general and 34 female ward councillor bidders.
Officials said that people whose papers got cancelled were mostly those who failed to submit income tax returns or presented faulty documents and false information or are accused in criminal cases.
Police yesterday arrested a Jamaat-e-Islami leader named Saidur Rahman, bidding for general councillor post in ward number 28 of DNCC, at the office of the returning officer. His papers were already cancelled for presenting wrong information.
Sabbir Hasan, OC of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station, said Saidur is facing four cases including one for a murder.
Saidur claimed that he did not know that he had cases against his name.
Yesterday, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, a disqualified Dhaka south mayoral aspirant, filed an appeal with the Dhaka divisional commissioner of the Election Commission for getting back his candidature.
On Wednesday, DSCC Returning Official Mihir Sarwar Morshed rejected his papers because he had not produced income tax return.
Chittagong
For the upcoming Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) elections, 29 candidates including six reserved female ward councilor aspirants were disqualified yesterday on the last day of nomination paper scrutiny.
This means that on April 28, 12 people will be running for the mayor of the port city, 257 for general and 61 for reserved female ward councillors.
Yesterday’s disqualifications came either because the candidates were bank loan defaulters or have failed to produce income tax returns or provided wrong information in the affidavits.
The nomination form of one Ramzan Ali was cancelled because he has not yet come of age. The papers of the women were mostly cancelled for providing improper or false information.
