Dhaka district Returning Officer has finally accepted Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad’s application for withdrawing his candidature from the Dhaka-17 constituency.
Returning Officer Zillar Rahman accepted the application on Thursday.
Ershad’s application was rejected on Wednesday because of an error in the date.
Meanwhile, the Jatiya Party chief has sent a letter to the Election Commission seeking cancellation of nominations of the party’s candidates, though ruling Awami League is still hopeful of its participation in the polls.
Jatiya Party candidates in several districts also submitted withdrawal applications to respective Returning Officers.
The party leaders had submitted nomination papers on Dec 2 to contest 299 seats out of 300 in the upcoming general election. Ershad had filed nominations for Dhaka-17, Rangpur-3 and Lalmonirhat-1 parliamentary seats.
But he later decided to boycott the polls and asked his party candidates to withdraw their nominations. He himself sent candidature-withdrawal applications to the three Returning Officers on Wednesday.
Though the Returning Officers in Lalmonirhat and Rangpur accepted the applications, the one for Dhaka was rejected because of an error in mentioning the date.
Rectifying the error, he again sent the application on Thursday to the Dhaka district Returning Officer.
Zillar Rahman told bdnews24.com: “We’ve accepted the letter.”
Asked if Ershad would be dropped from the list of candidates, he said: “The deadline for candidature withdrawal is Friday afternoon. The decision on the matter would be disclosed after that.”
Earlier, in a letter Ershad requested the Election Commission to cancel nominations of all his party candidates.
Meanwhile, Jatiya Party candidates in three constituencies in Shariatpur submitted applications to district Returning Officer Ramchandra Das on Thursday seeking withdrawal of their nominations.
The candidates are Masudur Rahman (Shariatpur-1), Sultan Ahmed Sardar (Shariatpur-2), and Abdul Hannan Hawlader (Shariatpur-3).
Shariatpur district Jatiya Party President Masudur Rahman told bdnews24.com: “The Returning Officer has accepted the candidature-withdrawal letters submitted at the instruction of the party Chairman.”
If their candidature is withdrawn, the Awami League candidates would be elected unopposed as there will be no other contestants.
The Awami League candidates are BM Mozammel Haq (Shariatpur-1), Shawkat Ali (Shariatpur-2) and Nahim Razzaq (Shariatpur-3).
Jatiya Party candidates in Barisal 1, 4 and 5 constituencies already submitted applications for withdrawal of their nominations.
Source: Bd news24