One mayoral candidate and seven councillor candidates in the Sylhet City Corporation polls have got their candidature back after their nominations were cancelled during scrutiny.
They appealed to Sylhet Divisional Commissioner Muhammad Mosharraf Hossain, who is in charge of the election's appeal authority.
Independent mayoral candidate Md Shahjahan Mia, reserved ward councillor candidates -- Shyamoli Sarkar of Ward-3, Tahmina Begum of Ward-4 and Kamrun Nahar Chowdhury of Ward-6 and general ward councillor candidates -- Md Fakhrul Islam of Ward-28, Abu Sadek Mohammad Khairul Islam Chowdhury of Ward-33, Md Rafiqul Islam of Ward-34 and Shahab Uddin of Ward-39 regained their candidature through appeal.
The hearing of their appeals was held at the Sylhet Divisional Commissioner's office on Tuesday.
Additional Division Commissioner (Revenue and Director Local Government) Md Zakaria said confirmed the matter to the media on Wednesday.
Candidates will be able to begin campaigning after allocation of symbols on June 2.
On the other hand, local election officials are currently conducting raids to remove posters and banners hung by nomination aspirants. They conducted simultaneous raids in 42 wards of the city corporation.
Returning Officer Md Foisol Kadir said that the candidates were supposed to remove the posters by themselves by May 23. But many failed to keep their promise and that is why the Election Commission has taken this measure of removing posters, he added.
Meanwhile, leaders of the 14-party alliance have announced their support for ruling party mayoral candidate Anowaruzzaman Chowdhury. The decision was taken during a meeting of the alliance today.
Sylhet AL President Masuk Uddin Ahmed presided over the meeting.
Sylhet Jatiyatabadi Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President Lokman Ahmed at the meeting said that the alliance is officially backing the AL candidate in city polls. “We will return home only after ensuring victory for the boat symbol,” he added.
AL candidate Anowaruzzaman at the meeting vowed to make Sylhet a modern and progressive city.
Sylhet City Corporation polls is scheduled to be held on June 21 while symbols will be allocated to candidates on June 2. There are 4,87,753 voters in the city corporation. A total of seven mayoral and 372 councillor candidates will be contesting the polls.
