By-polls to 5 JS seats on Feb 1

By-polls to the five parliamentary seats, which fell vacant following the resignation of BNP lawmakers, will be held on February 1 next year.

Election Commission Secretary Md Jahangir Alam announced the schedule yesterday after a meeting at the EC office in Dhaka’s Agargaon area.

The five constituencies where the by-polls will take place are Thakurgaon-3, Bogra-4, Bogra-6, Chapainawabganj-2, and Brahmanbaria-2.

The EC secretary said aspiring candidates have to submit their nomination papers by January 5. Returning officers will scrutinise the papers on January 8 and January 15 has been set as the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

On December 11, five out of seven BNP members of the parliament (MPs) submitted their resignation to Speaker of Parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, as part of their anti-government movement with a 10-point demand that includes dissolution of parliament.

The MPs who resigned in person are Md Zahidur Rahman of Thakurgaon-3, Md Mosharof Hosen of Bogura-4, Gulam Mohammad Siraj of Bogura-6, Md Aminul Islam of Chapainawabganj-2, and Rumeen Farhana, from women’s reserved seats.

Md Harunur Rashid of Chapainawabganj-3, who is now in Australia, and Abdus Sattar Buiyan, the ailing MP of Brahmanbaria-2, could not tender their resignations in person and did it through email.

In the afternoon, the Parliament Secretariat issued a gazette notification declaring the seats of six BNP MPs vacant.

The seat of Harunur Rashid was not declared vacant as his resignation letter was not accepted.

The JS secretariat could not be sure whether the signature on Harun’s resignation letter was by him.

“He’ll have to sign the letter by himself and send it again,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told reporters at her parliament office after receiving the resignation letters.