Festive modes were prevailing in and around the party offices of ruling Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party centring the distributions of party nomination forms for the posts of mayors and councilors in the elections of two city corporations scheduled to be held on January 30.
Candidates for mayoral and councilor posts in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) thronged the political office of Awami League president Sheikh Hasina along with thousands of their supporters and well-wishers.
Although the distributions of party nomination forms for the mayoral posts were started on Wednesday, forms for the councilors were started since Thursday morning. The candidature will be finalised at a meeting of the party’s nomination board on Saturday.
Witnesses said hundreds of councilors with separate processions were gathered at the Awami League office in Dhanmondi-3/A. All the candidates and their supporters and well wishers were seen chanting slogans. Various types of posters, banners and placards were seen in their hands.
Forms are being distributed among the candidates in presence of Awami League organising secretary SM Kamal Hossain and Office Secretary Biplab Barua at the office.
The process of nomination form distributions will remain continued till 5:00pm Friday. Tk 25,000 has been fixed for each of the mayoral nomination forms while Tk 10,000 for councilor post.
According to party sources, nine forms were distributed among nine mayoral candidates for two city corporations. Of them, five forms were distributed among five candidates for DSCC and four others for DNCC.
Fazle Nur Tapas, also the Member of Parliament for Dhaka-10 constituency, Haji Mohammad Selim, MP for Dhaka-7 Constituency, Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Central Command Council’s former vice president MA Rashid and Sheikh Russel Jatiya Shishu Kishore Parishad Adviser Md Nazmul Huq collected forms for the DSCC.
Incumbent mayor Sayeed Khokan also collected his form Thursday. But, his candidature is said to in a challenge as Fazle Nur Tapas also collected a nomination form.
On the other hand, incumbent mayor Atiqul Islam, Bangabandhu Foundation Joint General Secretary Shahidullah Osmani, Awami League’s Bhasantek Thana Vice-President Yead Ali Fokir, and Awami League Dhaka north Ward 15 unit leader Jamal Bhuiyan collected nomination forms for DNCC mayoral race.
The schedule for the elections were announced on December 22. According to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda, the voting will be held from 8:00am to 4:00pm and the voting will be held through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). At least two Army personnel will remain present at each of the voting centres for security purposes.
The last date for the submission of nomination forms on December 31 and last date for withdrawal on January 9. The past elections were held four years ago on April 28 in 2015. In the elections, Sayeed Khokan was elected as the mayor of DSCC and Anisul Huq as the DNCC Mayor. But Anisul Huq died on November 30 in his early age and therefore Atiqul Islam was elected as the DNCC mayor through a by election.
O the first day of nomination form distribution for the councilors, at least 200 forms were distributed among the candidates.
BNP Nominations
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is also taking part in the election race and as part of the process, party’s central committee special affairs secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon and central committee member Tabid Awal collected nomination forms for the DNCC while Israk Hossain, the son of former Mayor late Sadeq Hossai n Khoka for the DSCC.
Candidates for different councilors’ posts also were collecting nomination forms from the party office.
They collected forms from the BNP’s central office at the capital’s Naya Paltan. Several hundreds of their supporters and well wishers were also present there.
Besides, Jatiya Party leader Saifuddin Ahmed Milan collected a nomination form from the party office for DSCC and Alamgir Sikder Loton for the DNCC.
