A total of 561 aspirants from different political parties and independents have filed appeals before the Election Commission (EC) challenging the returning officers (ROs) decisions scrapping their candidature for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections.
EC secretary Jahangir Alam at a press conference at EC Headquarters in the capital’s Agargaon on Saturday, the last day to appeal against the RO’s decision, said in five days of appealing period a total of 561 candidates have filed their appeals against the ROs’ decision.
The appeal hearings are scheduled to begin on Sunday (December 10) and will continue until Friday (December 15).
According to EC, 42 candidates appealed on the first day, 141 on 2nd day, 155 appealed on the 3rd day, 93 on fourth day and 130 aspirants appealed on Sunday, last day to appeal.
The candidates whose candidatures were cancelled included mostly independent candidates with no notable heavyweights among them. Some of them are loan defaulters, while others are implicated in criminal cases.
As per the election schedule, the last date for filing nomination papers was November 30. The deadline for the withdrawal of candidature is December 17. The symbol allotment is set for December 18. The election campaign will continue from December 18 to January 5 at 8am, and polling is scheduled for January 7.