Staff Reporter :
Ruling Awami League on Tuesday started sale of its nomination forms of the reserved seats for women in the Parliament.
The AL will get 43 seats out of 50.
The sales of nomination forms began around 10am on Tuesday from the Awami League President’s Office in Dhanmondi and were inaugurated by General Secretary Obaidul Quader.
The candidates flocked there in the morning to collect the nomination forms.
Eight booths have been set up for eight zones so that the nomination seekers can easily collect.
The sales will continue until the Election Commission announces the election schedule, said Awami League Office Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap.
The nomination forms are being sold for Tk 30,000 apiece.
Among the 350 seats in Parliament, 50 are reserved exclusively for women.
While the 300 Parliamentary seats are contested in a direct election, the reserved seats are allocated to political parties in proportion with their number of seats in the Parliament.
Accordingly, 43 seats will be allotted to the Awami League, four to the Jatiya Party, one each to the BNP and the Workers Party while the independent candidates may receive one seat if they join the votes.
Earlier Monday, the Election Commission Secretary announced that the commission would likely announce the election schedule on February 17 for 50 reserved seats for women.
The Election Commission has a legal obligation to arrange the polls to the 50 reserved seats within 90 days after the gazette of general election result is published.
The directly-elected members of parliament are the voters of the election.
If the number of nominated candidates by a political party is equal to its reserved seats, the contenders will be declared elected unopposed immediate after the last date for withdrawal of candidacy.
