Ruling Awami League and main political opposition BNP have finalised the list of their mayoral candidate nominations for the upcoming polls in 236 municipalities across the country.
The ruling party has already announced that it is going to contest the first ever partisan municipality polls alone, while arch rival BNP said it will run in the elections with its alliance partners.
Until last night, the Awami League has reportedly finalised its mayoral nominations for all the 236 municipalities which means these candidates will run with the party’s electoral symbol – boat.
The BNP on the other hand has selected 234 candidate who will be running with the party’s electoral symbol – sheaf of paddy.
Sources said, the party has left the remaining two municipalities to its 20-party alliance partners Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Jatiya Party-Zafar.
Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif said yesterday that they would start sending the lists to the local committees after Prime Minister and party chief Sheikh Hasina gave her nod in a parliamentary committee meeting.
The BNP meanwhile began distributing attested copies of nomination papers to candidates or their representatives, said Emran Saleh Prince, assistant publicity secretary of the party.
He said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia approved the list last night.
However, the party has yet to make any decision regarding leaving seats to its biggest alliance partner Jamaat-e-Islami, who currently cannot take part in any elections because of a void registration with the Election Commission.
According to a BNP insider, Jamaat has given a list of potential candidates to Khaleda Zia, who is also chief of the 20-party alliance, but she has yet to make any decision in this regard.
BNP Joint Secretary General Mohammad Shahjahan handed over attested nomination forms to several mayoral candidates at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office last night.
“We have taken the challenge of participating in the polls despite there being several other challenges… this challenge also be to restore democracy in the country,” he said.
The former whip also said: “We are not participating in the election against any condition. We are taking this as a political challenge and we will remain in the field.
“We hope that the Election Commission and the government will not throw us away from the election field,” he hoped.
A total of 20 political parties have so far confirmed the Election Commission about their participation in the polls, slated for December 30.
Fazle Hossain Badsha, general secretary of ruling alliance partner Workers Party of Bangladesh, said they had already finalised a list and sent it to the respective municipalities.
“Workers Party-backed mayoral candidates will contest for at least 30 mayoral posts. We have already sent letters to 20 municipalities,” he said, adding that the rest will be sent by Wednesday.
Mujahidul Islam Selim, president of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), said their nomination selection process is going on in full swing and the final list of the mayoral candidates will be published soon.
Bikalpadhara Bangladesh is yet to finalise its candidates’ list as there is still time for filing the papers, leaders said.
Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, secretary general of main opposition in parliament Jatiya Party, said they had already sent 100 names to the respective municipalities.
Sharif Nurul Ambia, general secretary of another ruling alliance partner Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), said they would not disclose the number their mayoral candidates.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
