The Election Commission on Saturday cancelled the candidacy of Bangladesh Nationalist Party nominee Monzurul Ahsan Munshi and upheld the nomination of National Citizen Party candidate Hasnat Abdullah, in the Cumilla-4 constituency.
The decision followed appeal hearings conducted by the Election Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, after both candidates filed petitions against each other.
The commission accepted Hasnat’s appeal, cancelling Munshi’s candidature, while rejecting Munshi’s appeal and declaring Hasnat’s nomination valid for the national election scheduled for 12 February.
In his appeal, Munshi alleged that Hasnat failed to correctly disclose the sources of his income in the affidavit submitted with his nomination paper.
Hasnat, in his petition, alleged that Munshi was a loan defaulter and had concealed the information in his nomination documents.
The Election Commission, acting as the electoral appeal tribunal, began hearing the appeals on 10 January and is scheduled to dispose of a total of 645 petitions by Sunday.
The appeal hearings relate to challenges filed by aggrieved individuals and organisations against decisions of returning officers over the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers during scrutiny.
According to the commission, a total of 2,568 aspirants submitted nomination papers to contest the upcoming national election across the country’s 300 constituencies by the 29 December deadline.
After scrutiny, returning officers declared 1,842 nomination papers valid and rejected 723 others.
