Staff Reporter :A total of 178 probable candidates submitted nomination papers for DCCs elections to the office of their respective returning officers on the first day of nomination submission on Saturday, sources in the Election Commission said. Of them, seven were probable mayoral candidates, 151 councillor candidates and 20 reserved councillor candidates.The probable mayoral candidates who have submitted their nominations are: Akhtaruzzaman, Khalekuzzama, Abu Naser Md Masud Hussain, Zahidur Rahman, Erad Ahmed Siddique, Shamsul Alam Chowdhury and Abdulla-al-Kafi. Today (Sunday) is the last day of submission of nomination papers.Earlier, a total of 56 aspirant mayoral candidates and 2141 councillor (general and reserved) candidates have bought nomination papers to join the upcoming Dhaka North City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DNCC) polls fray. “A total of 30 aspirant mayoral candidates and 1128 probable councillor candidates have collected nominations from my office. Of them, four mayoral candidates and 77 councillor candidates have submitted their nominations,” Mihir Sarwar Morshed, Returning Officer (RO) of DSCC told The New Nation on Saturday evening.Shah Alam, RO of DNCC, told this reporter that a total of 28 aspirant mayoral candidates have bought nomination papers from his office. Of them, three have submitted their nomination on the first day of nomination submission.According to him, a total of 823 probable councillor (both general and reserved) candidates have collected nomination from his office. Of them, 74 submitted their nominations on Saturday. Among them, seven were probable candidates for reserved councillor post. Meanwhile, the Election Commission issued show cause notices on 105 probable candidates until Saturday for their alleged involvement in breaching the electoral code of conduct ahead of city corporation polls.Returning officers of DSCC and DNCC on behalf of the EC served the show cause notices.They have been asked to reply to the show cause notices within 48 hours.According to the EC rules, no candidate will be allowed to do election campaign or seek votes before 21 days of the election. But, some probable candidates are seeking votes through posters, billboards and festoons in violation to the EC’s polls rules.On March 18, the EC announced the schedule for DSCC and DNCC elections.According to the announcement, probable candidates could buy and submit nomination papers till March 29.According to the schedule, the deadline for submission of nomination papers is March 29, scrutiny of the nomination is April 1-2 and nomination can be withdrawn until April 9. The voting will be held on April 28.
