Awami League candidate for Barisal-5 constituency Zaheed Farooque has filed an appeal with the Election Commission (EC), challenging the validity of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah’s candidature for the January 7 national polls.
Zaheed Farooque, who is the state minister for water resources of the incumbent government and also the vice president of district Awami League, filed the appeal on Wednesday, alleging that independent candidate Sadiq Abdullah had included false information in his affidavit.
The appeal was filed on behalf of Farooque by his supporter, Advocate KBS Ahmed Kabir.
Earlier, in an oral complaint to the returning officer, Farooque alleged that Sadiq Abdullah has a house in the US under his wife’s name, and the information was concealed in the affidavit.
“We had brought the matter to the attention of the returning officer. As the matter was not taken into consideration by him, we filed the appeal with the EC,” Ahmed told reporters.
After scrutiny of papers between December 1 and 4, the EC found the nominations of eight candidates valid, including that of Sadiq Abdullah.
Zaheed Farooque told reporters that he is hopeful that the EC will now make the correct decision.
Regarding the matter, Sadiq Abdullah told Dhaka Tribune that everyone has the right to raise an objection and appeal against the decision of the returning officer. But the EC will make the final call in this regard, he added.
Former city mayor Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah had sought the party’s nomination but was denied. With a number of allegations against him, Sadiq Abdullah was also denied the party ticket in the Barisal city polls earlier this year.
The EC this year rejected a total of 731 nomination papers out of 2,716 filed to contest the January 7 elections. The EC will hear the appeals of candidates who lost nomination papers from December 6 to 15, while the last date for withdrawing nomination papers is December 17.
