UNB, Rangpur :Voicing doubt about fair polls, Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad here on Monday said 18 of his party-backed candidates were not allowed to submit their nomination papers in the upcoming municipal elections slated for December 30.”Our candidates are receiving threats for filing their nominations. Even some were threatened with arson attacks on their houses if they don’t withdraw their candidature. This is not a democratic behaviour,” he said.Ershad, also a special envoy to the Prime Minister, was talking to reporters at his ‘Palli Nibash’ city residence after a ceremony marking the joining of Shafiul Islam, a former Chhatra Shibir leader and a Rangpur City Corporation councillor to Jatiya Party.About Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s remarks that Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad can no longer be called former presidents of Bangladesh as the country’s apex court declared them illegal presidents, the JaPa chief said, “I was a legal president during the 1986-1990 period and hope I’ ll be president again in the future.””No one can term a legal president illegal. I don’t know why the Prime Minister said this. She compared me with Ziaur Rahman but me and Zia are not the same,” he said.
