Special Correspondent
The Election Commission (EC) has set Jun 24 as the date for the by-polls to the Bogura-6 parliamentary constituency.
The Bogura-6 seat was declared vacant on Apr 30 after its winner in the Dec 30 elections, BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, refused to take oath as an MP.
EC Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed announced the election schedule on Wednesday. According to the schedule, the deadline for the submission of nomination papers to the returning officer for the seat is set on May 23.
The scrutiny of nominations will end on May 27 while the last date for withdrawing candidature is Jun 3.
Electronic Voting Machine, or EVM, will be used to cast ballots at the election. Polls to the constituency will open at 9am and will close at 5pm.
BNP gets one seat reserved for woman
The Election Commission has also announced the election schedule for one parliamentary seat exclusively reserved against five BNP MPs who joined the 11th parliament at the last moment.
The EC will accept nominations for the seat until May 20, according to the schedule announced on Wednesday.
The aspirants will be able to withdraw nominations until May 28 after scrutiny on May 21. The voting day is June 16, EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said.
In the 350-seat parliament, 50 are reserved exclusively for women and the remaining 300 are contested in a direct election. The reserved seats are allocated to political parties in proportion to their number of seats in parliament.
In accordance with the provision, 49 out of 50 reserve seats , had been elected uncontested . Of them, 43 are from the ruling Awami League, four from the Jatiya Party, one from the Workers Party and the other an independent candidate.
The BNP got one seat in accordance with the rules for allocation. But the seat was left unfilled until the party’s MPs-elect took their seats in parliament.
The BNP woman MP is also expected to be elected uncontested as well.
The name is likely to be announced on the deadline day for withdrawal of nomination on May 28.
BNP seeks time to submit statement on election expenses.
Meanwhile, BNP on Wednesday sought time until June 8 from the Election Commission (EC) to submit its statement on December-30 election expenditures.
A three-member BNP delegation, led by its assistant office secretary Taiful Islam Tipu, submitted a letter, signed by party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, to the EC seeking the time extension, UNB reports.
Talking to UNB, Tipu said BNP could not prepare the statement on election expenses for various reasons. “We urged the Commission to give us one month’s time (until June 8) to submit the statement.”
Two other BNP delegation members are party assistant office secretaries Monir Hossain and Belal Ahmed. The deadline for submission of the statement expired over a month ago.
According to article 44CCC (1) of The Representation of the People Order, 1972, every political party nominating any candidate for election shall submit an expenditure statement to the Commission within ninety days of the completion of election in all constituencies.
Thursday, September 05, 2019
