Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission is in a quandary over allotting election symbols to the two candidates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the Comilla 10 constituency.
The commission and the returning officer for Comilla have changed election symbols for the two candidates for Comilla 10 constituency at least three times in two days.
The commission on Sunday allotted the BNP’s electoral symbol of paddy sheaf to Mobashwer Alam Bhuyian, who on Saturday was given the symbol of deer by the returning officer as an independent candidate, scrapping the earlier allotment.
Mobashwer Alam, who was the second choice of the BNP for the constituency, was initially given the symbol of paddy sheaf as the BNP’s first choice Abdul Gafur Bhuiyan’s nomination was cancelled.
The returning officer on Saturday allotted the symbol of paddy sheaf to Abdul Gafur Bhuiyan after his nomination had been validated by the Supreme Court in the past week.
In protest at the scrapping the symbol of paddy sheaf, Mobashwer filed a complaint with the commission on Saturday arguing the Appellate Division in its order did not give any directives on the allotment of the symbol of paddy sheaf to Gafur.
Asked how the commission scrapped Gafur Bhuiyan’s election symbol, the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said, ‘Gafur submitted his nomination as independent and BNP candidate. We selected him as an independent candidate.’
Another returning officer for the Chandpur 1 constituency did not allot any symbol to Mir Mohammad Iqbal Hossain, who was earlier given the Awami League’s electoral symbol of boat.
The returning officer on Friday amended the candidate list and allotted the symbol of boat to Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, whose nomination was validated by court.
In keeping electoral laws, an individual seeking to be an independent candidate must submit signatures of 1 per cent of voters of the constituency with the nomination.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
