City polls: Mintoo’s appeal rejected

Authorities today rejected an appeal of BNP leader Abdul Awal Mintoo challenging the cancellation of his nomination for mayoral race for the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

The decision came on the first day of hearing into the appeals filed by the mayor and councillor aspirants for the upcoming Dhaka city corporation polls challenging cancellation of their nominations.

Mintoo’s lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon made the disclosure after coming out from the divisional commissioner’s office this evening.

Khokon said the divisional commissioner upheld the previous decision of cancelling Mintoo’s nomination.

“If Mintoo was an Awami League supported candidate, he would not have faced this problem,” Khokon said adding, “Mintoo did not get justice.”

Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman began hearings the appeals around 10:00am at his Segunbagicha office, said an official of the divisional commissioner’s office.

The divisional commissioner is expected to deliver the verdict on the appeals of two other mayor aspirants, including Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, former BNP lawmaker, this evening.

Mintoo's nomination was cancelled on April 1 due to mistakes in the filing procedure, while Pintu's nomination was cancelled on the same day for providing incorrect information about the cases filed against him.

Both of them filed appeals on Thursday with the divisional commissioner of Dhaka, challenging returning officers' decision to disqualify them.

Elections to Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations will be held on April 28. The deadline for filing nomination expired on March 29. A total of 47 mayoral and 1,417 councillor aspirants filed nominations in the two Dhaka city corporations.

While scrutinising the nomination papers on April 1 and 2, retuning officers cancelled nominations of five mayoral and 203 councillor aspirants on grounds like hiding information, loan default and mistakes in filing procedure.