HC asks EC to accept six aspirants' nominations

The High Court (HC) asked on Sunday the Election Commissioner (EC) to accept the nomination papers of six candidates, clearing the way for their participation in the 11th parliamentary elections billed for December 30, reports UNB.

Of them, five were BNP contestants and the other is independent runner Imran H Sarkar, also Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson.

The five BNP aspirants are Fahmid Foysal Chowdhury of Nilphamari-3, Amzad Hossain of Nilphamari-4, Syed Jahangir Alam of Dinajpur-3, Mohammad Nazmul of Naogaon-5 and Touhidul Haq of Panchagarh-1.

An HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order after hearing separate writ petitions filed by the five BNP leaders challenging the EC's decision to reject their candidature.

Earlier in the day, the BNP contenders filed the writ petitions challenging the legality of the EC's decision that rejected their candidature as they were holding the posts of municipality mayor.

The EC rejected the nominations of five BNP aspirants while hearing petitions filed challenging returning officers' decisions.

The returning officers concerned rejected the nomination papers of five BNP leaders saying all of them were holding respective posts of municipality mayor.

The same bench ordered the acceptance of the nomination of Imran H Sarkar for Kurigram-4 after hearing his writ petition.