Monirul Haque Sakku, who ended his tenure as mayor of Comilla City Corporation (COCC), submitted his nomination as an independent candidate on Tuesday for the upcoming polls on June 15.
His younger brother Qayyum-ul-Haq Rinku submitted the papers to Returning Officer Md Shahedunnabi Chowdhury on the last day of submitting nominations on Tuesday.
So far, 198 candidates for the posts of mayor, councilor, and reserved councilor have collected nomination papers from the returning officer’s office.
Independent mayoral candidate and Comilla city Sewchchasebak Dal President Nizam Uddin Kaiser also submitted his nomination papers at around 12:30pm.
Meanwhile, Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat is set to submit his nomination papers in the afternoon.
Earlier, Rifat was summoned by the Election Commission on Sunday as he had attended a views exchange meeting of the party with lawmaker AKM Bahauddin Bahar in the chair.
Officials talk to reporters on the last day of submitting nomination papers for the upcoming Comilla City Polls Tuesday, May 17, 2022 Dhaka Tribune Following this, a section of local Awami League leaders and activists expressed resentment as Rifat had long been criticized within the party for his involvement with drug cartels and arms smugglers, and for tender manipulation and illegal extraction of sand from the Gumti River.
Meanwhile, additional police have been deployed in important areas of the city.
Moreover, the executive magistrates and BGB that were deployed in the district as part of the election security process are continuing their patrol activities.
On April 25, the EC announced the polls schedule for the COCC as well as six municipalities and 135 union parishads – to be held through electronic voting machines (EVMs).
An estimated 105 polling stations can be set up in the city which may comprise 640 polling booths.
A total of 189 candidates collected nomination papers for the upcoming polls. Five aspirants will be vying for the mayoral post while 147 for councilor posts and 37 for general councilor posts.
Officials will verify the documents submitted by the candidates on May 19, and aspirants will get until May 26 to pull out from the races.
Polls symbols will be allotted to candidates on May 27.
