EC axes Anisul, Zara, few others’ aspirants
Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission’s scrutiny of nomination papers ahead of the parliamentary elections on Saturday led to the cancellation of several high-profile candidacies, including those of Jatiya Party (factional) President Anisul Islam Mahmud in Chattogram, independent candidate Dr Tasnim Zara in Dhaka, and Jamaat-e-Islami nominee Abdul Huq, officials said.
In Chattogram-5 (Hathazari), the nomination of Jatiya Party candidate Anisul Islam Mahmud Chowdhury was cancelled by the returning officer and Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Dr Zia Uddin.
While election officials had earlier cited a mismatch between signatures on the party nomination papers and those on record with the Election Commission, the precise grounds for the cancellation were not immediately disclosed at the time of the announcement on Saturday.
The decision triggered a tense situation outside the Chattogram Divisional Commissioner’s Office. Shortly after the cancellation, police from Kotwali Police Station detained Mahmud’s proposer, Mohammad Salauddin, for questioning. Police sources said Salauddin was taken into custody for interrogation.
The detention came amid protests by more than a hundred students who gathered under the banner of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. The demonstration began around noon as hearings for the Chattogram-5 constituency were underway.
Chattogram-5, which comprises Hathazari upazila and parts of Chattogram city, saw the cancellation of four nominations in total. Alongside Anisul Islam Mahmud, former BNP central committee deputy treasurer SM Fazlul Haque, Barrister Shakila Farzana — daughter of former whip Wahidul Alam — and Mohammad Imam Uddin Riyad lost their candidacies.
Fazlul Haque and Shakila Farzana had filed as independent candidates, but their nominations were cancelled after verification of the required one percent voter signatures under the dual-selection process revealed discrepancies.
Meanwhile in Dhaka, independent candidate Dr Tasnim Zara, a former leader of the National Citizen Party, had her nomination for the Dhaka-9 constituency cancelled on grounds of invalid supporting signatures. Dhaka District Administrator and Returning Officer Rezaul Karim announced the decision around 11am on Saturday.
Zara said the disqualification arose during verification of the signatures she submitted to meet the legal requirement that an independent candidate secure endorsements from one percent of the constituency’s voters. She claimed to have submitted nearly 200 signatures above the required threshold.
According to her account, ten signatures were selected for verification, eight of which were found valid, while two belonged to genuine voters registered outside Dhaka-9 in adjacent areas of Khilgaon.
She argued that the two signatories acted in good faith, believing themselves to be voters of Dhaka-9, and criticised the Election Commission for failing to provide an accessible system to verify a voter’s constituency. Zara said she would immediately appeal the decision.
In another major development, Jamaat-e-Islami–nominated candidate Abdul Huq’s nomination for the Dhaka-2 constituency was cancelled after election officials found him to be a loan defaulter.
Returning Officer and Dhaka District Commissioner Rezaul Karim said the decision was based on a Credit Information Bureau report from Bangladesh Bank listing Huq as a defaulter.
Addressing Huq during the scrutiny, the returning officer said the nomination could not be accepted at this stage.
Election officials also noted that Huq had failed to submit his income tax return Form 10B, a photocopy of his national identity card, and complete details of his proposer and seconder. Huq, like the other disqualified candidates, retains the right to appeal within the stipulated timeframe.
Saturday’s developments underscored the heightened political tensions surrounding the nomination process, as administrative scrutiny, protests and legal challenges converged on the first day of decisive rulings on candidate eligibility.