Bangladesh News

Individuals seeking candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary election are not qualified for contesting the January 22 upazila polls as the caretaker government has amended the upazila parishad ordinance to prevent them from contesting both the elections.

President Iajuddin Ahmed on November 25 promulgated an ordinance amending the local government (upazila parishad) ordinance to this end, Election Commission (EC) sources said.

At the end of last week, the EC Secretariat received a copy of the gazette notification that contained the amendment, and it will send directives to the Returning Officers (ROs) in this regard.

If any parliamentary aspirant wants to file application seeking candidacy in upazila election, he has to withdraw candidature in the national polls.

The local government (upazila parishad) ordinance promulgated in June this year did not preclude one from seeking election to parliament and upazila parishads at the same time. It only bars one from contesting for more than one post in upazila election.

Now, as the parliamentary and upazila polls are to be held with a short time gap, many plan to run in both the elections. Against this backdrop, the government went for amendment to this ordinance.

The deadline for filing applications for candidacy in upazila parishad polls is December 13 while the last date for withdrawal candidature in parliamentary race is December 11.

Over 2,450 have filed nomination papers with the ROs seeking candidacy in the parliamentary election. The ROs will scrutinise those on December 3 and 4, and announce which ones are valid or not.

The amendment to the upazila parishad ordinance also empowered the EC to cancel candidature for violation of the code of conduct for the polls.

Under the original ordinance, the EC did not have this authority.