Staff Reporter :
Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself will select the mayor candidates for her party to contest in the upcoming municipality elections, while the BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has assigned her party’s Joint-Secretary General Mohammad Shahjahan to pick and choose BNP mayor aspirants on her behalf.
Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad will choose the mayor candidates for his party.
In separate official letters on Saturday, the Awami League, the BNP and the Jatiya Party informed it to the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat.
Before it, the EC issued letters to all the 40 registered political parties asking them to comply with the newly formulated legal provisions regarding candidate selection.
According to rules and regulations, the political parties interested in contesting the municipality elections will have to send a letter to the Returning Officers mentioning the names of party-authorised persons, who will pick and choose the candidates. The copies of the letter must be sent to the EC Secretariat.
“We have submitted a letter signed by Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam to the EC Secretariat to inform that the party President Sheikh Hasina will select the mayor candidates,” AL Assistant Secretary ABM Riazul Kabir told journalists at the EC Secretariat on Saturday morning.
On the other hand, a three-member BNP delegation led by party’s Assistant Publicity Secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince handed the letter to the EC Secretariat.
“A copy of the letter signed by BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s special aide Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas has been handed to EC Secretariat. The letter attested by the party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has assigned party Joint Secretary General Mohammad Shahjahan to select the mayor candidates on behalf of her (Khaleda) ,” Syed Imran Saleh Prince told journalists at EC Secretariat.
Deputy Secretary of EC received the letter. The EC will be able to verify the identities of the real party nominated candidates.
On last Thursday, an emergency meeting of AL Central Working Committee and AL Parliamentary Board was held at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official residence in the Ganobhaban to devise strategy about the upcoming municipality polls.
On the same day, the BNP led 20-party alliance in a meeting held at the BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan party office decided to join municipality elections.
According to BNP sources, the party has already finalised the list of its mayor candidates.
The party also formed a six-member committee comprising BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman, Chairperson’s adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon and party’s central leader Imran Saleh Prince in this connection.
BNP also formed 19 separate committees, headed by party senior leaders to carry out election campaign in favour of their candidates and monitor elections in 19 greater districts where the municipality elections will be held.
