Staff Reporter :
The by-polls to the Lakshmipur-2 Jatiya Sangsad constituency of independent lawmaker Mohammad Shahid Islam, also known as Kazi Papul, that has been vacated on grounds of moral turpitude will be held on April 11.
The sixth phase of municipality elections and the first phase of staggered elections of union parishads (UP) will be held on the same day, the Election commission said this afternoon. EC Secretary Humayun Kabir Khandaker announced the election schedule in a press briefing at the EC office after a commission meeting on Wednesday.
According to the schedule, the last date for submitting nomination papers is March 18. The returning officers will scrutinise nomination papers on March 19, and the last date for withdrawal of candidacy is March 24.
Humayun said that a total of 371 UPs will go to election in the first phase. Also, eleven municipalities will go for polls in the sixth phase on the same day.
He added that elections to the 30 UPs and the municipalities will be conducted using electronic voting machines. The Lakshmipur-2 by-polls will be also conducted through EVMs.
Earlier on February 22, the Parliament Secretariat issued a notice cancelling Papul’s parliament membership, and showing his seat vacant from January 28.
A criminal court of Kuwait on January 28 jailed Bangladeshi MP Kazi Shahid Islam Papul for four years for money laundering and human trafficking.
Earlier on June 6 last year, Kuwait’s Criminal Investigation Department arrested Papul.
At that time, Gulf News in a report said the prosecutors made three allegations against him – human trafficking, money laundering and selling resident permice to Bangladeshi workers there.
It was learned that he was apprehended after five Bangladeshi nationals alleged that Papul, an independent lawmaker from Laxmipur-2 constituency, took more than Tk 8.25 lakh from them each to send them to Kuwait.
Besides, they had to pay him newly every year for residency VISA renewal, they had alleged.
