Lowest nomination filing since 1991
The 10th parliamentary polls is witnessing the least amount of interest among politicians with less than four aspirants filing nomination forms for a constituency amid opposition’s decision to boycott, what it calls, a lopsided election. Only 1,107 candidates have field nomination forms for the elections scheduled for January 5, which is the lowest of all the general elections held in the country since 1991.
In eight out of the 300 constituencies, only one candidate submitted nominations for each constituency while in 62 constituencies, there were only two aspirants.
The highest number of nominations has been filed for Cox’s Bazar-3 constituency where there are 10 aspirants followed by Rangamati where the number of intending contenders is 9.
The lone candidates in the 8 constituencies are Sheikh Afil Uddin in Jessore-1, Amanur Rahman Khan in Tangail-3, Ridwan Ahmed Toufik in Kishoreganj-4, Momtaj Begum in Manikganj-2, Abdus Shahid in Moulvibazar-4, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir in Chandpur-1, Nuruzzaman Ahmed in Lalmonirhat-2, and Morshed Alam in Noakhali-2.
Except for ruling Awami League led 14-party alliance and Jatiya Party, headed by HM Ershad, Jatiya Party (Manju) and Tarikat Federation have filed nomination papers apart from some rebel candidates from AL and JP.
In several constituencies, Jatiya Party candidates did not file nomination papers. JP officials said their candidates could not file nomination papers fearing backlash from opposition’s pro-blockade activists.
The JP earlier announced to file nomination papers for all the 300 seats.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance and some other parties have already declared to boycott the polls demanding a non-party caretaker government to supervise the election.
In the lopsided election held on February 15, 1996, the number of candidates was 1,987. The February 15 election was boycotted by Awami League, Jamaat-e-Islami and other political parties belonging to the then opposition camp.
In the ninth general election held in 2008 and supervised by military-backed caretaker government, a total of 2,460 candidates submitted nomination papers while 4,146 submitted nominations in the stalled 9th parliamentary polls, which were scheduled for January 22, 2007.
In the 2001 general election, the number of total submitted nomination forms was 2,563.
In the 1996 general election, a total of 3,096 candidates submitted nomination papers.
This time, AL has filed nomination forms for 297 constituencies but the party also has 60 rebel candidates.
Nomination paper in favour of Sheikh Hasina, the Awami League chief and head of the ‘all-party’ poll-time government, has been submitted for Rangpur-6 and Gopalganj-3 constituencies.
Meanwhile, around 61 nomination papers have been submitted against the 15 constituencies of Dhaka. Out of the 61 nomination forms, 13 were submitted by Awami League aspirants, 15 by Jatiya Party (Ershad) nominees, 5 by JP-Manju aspirants, 4 by Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Inu) nominees, 3 by Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) ticket-holders and 1 each by Workers Party, Nap(Bhasani), Tarikat Fedaration and Khelafat Majlish nominees.
The Awami League General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam submitted his nomination paper for Kishoreganj-1 to contest the next polls.
However, on his way to Kishoreganj, blockaders hurled brickbats targeting the motorcade of Ashraf in front of Hossain Market at Tongi in Gazipur.
Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif submitted his nomination paper for Kushtia-3 seat to the Kushtia returning officer’s office around 1:00pm.
Courtesy of The Independent
