EC waits for Speaker for decision on Latif

The Election Commission (EC) is waiting for the Speaker’s decision before it moves on Abdul Latif Siddiqui. The EC officials say they would not move even if the Awami League (AL) formally informs it about his expulsion from the party. Siddiqui's anti-Hajj rant in New York last month provoked a furor across Bangladesh. After being dropped from the Cabinet and then from the ruling party’s presidium, Siddiqui also lost primary membership of his party. He claimed in Kolkata he was still an MP unless the EC gave its verdict. Two contrasting opinions are doing the rounds on the issue. Some say despite expulsion from the party, he will remain an MP – a position contested by AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam who thinks otherwise. Syed Ashraf says the EC has been informed about Siddiqui’s expulsion from the party on the day the AL decided on it. But Election Commissioner Md Shahnawaz said that until Sunday evening no such intimation had been received from the AL. ‘We have received nothing on this’ is all he was prepared to say. ‘Even after we get an intimation from the Awami League about his ouster from party, we will have to wait for a formal decision from the Speaker,’ said a top EC official, according to bdnews24.com.