AL, BNP still in trouble Deadline for filing nominations ends tomorrow

Both the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party are still in trouble with seat sharing with allies for the December 30 parliamentary elections while the deadline for the submission of the nomination papers will expire on Wednesday. 
The two archrivals continued facing tremendous pressure from their allies for greater share of the 300 constituencies until Monday.
Delay in finalisation of the seat sharing would cause trouble to the candidates in filling in the nomination forms which was time consuming, some aspirants who collected forms told New Age on Monday.
AL general secretary Obaidul Quader did not announce the list of all the nominated candidates for the 300 constituencies on Monday which he promised on Sunday. 
AL’s main ally the Jatiya Party faction led by Ershad announced decision to nominate candidates for 200 seats separately.
The Awami League finalised its party nominations for 230 seats on Sunday leaving the rest 70 for the allies.
Obaidul Quader told reporters at the AL president Sheikh Hasina’s political office at Dhanmondi on Monday that the final list of alliance candidates for 300 seats would be announced on December 2 after scrutinising the list along with the allies.
Jatiya Party secretary general Ruhul Amin at a press conference at the party’s Banani office said that the party would field candidates in 200 seats, including 45 nominated by the ruling alliance.
He came up with the announcement in the face of protests from party nomination seekers and their supporters accusing Ruhul of giving nominations in exchange of bribes.
‘Based on negotiations with Mahajot [AL-led alliance] leaders, Jatiya Party will submit nominations in 200 candidatures,’ Ruhul told the press conference.
Till Monday morning it was finalised that the Jatiya Party would get 45 of the 70 seats the Awami League left for allies, said leaders of the both parties.
Leaders of some parties in the AL-alliance said that they had not got their due share of seats.
The eight members of the BNP standing committee also continued facing huge pressures from its allies in two alliances — the Jatiya Oikya Front and the BNP-led 20 alliance.
BNP leaders said that the allies demanded alliance nominations for 320 of their candidates.
The dispute over seat sharing between BNP and its allies continued rising as some aggrieved AL leaders like Abu Sayeed and Golam Maula Rony joined BNP and Gono Forum respectively on Monday.
BNP distributed certificate of party nominations among about 150 candidates in Barishal, Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions on Monday. 
Golam Maula Rony’s nomination from BNP for Patuakhali 3 constituency prompted allies to bargain for more seats at the eleventh hour.
Gono Forum executive president Subrata Chowdhury and Krishak Sramik Janata League joint secretary Iqbal Siddiquee said that their parties would field candidates in many constituencies separately and would withdraw the candidatures after finalising the seat sharing.
Jatiya Oikya Front spokesperson and BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met KSJL president Kader Siddique’s at the latter’s Mohammadpur house and suggested him to submit the party’s nominations separately, Iqbal said.
‘We would field candidates in 43 seats,’ he added.
Talking to journalists after a meeting at Jatiya Oikya Front chief Dr Kamal Hossain’s chamber on Sunday, Fakhrul said that they would finally settle the seat sharing before the November 28 deadline for submission of nomination papers.
He said that if necessary they would finalise the alliance nominations before the December 9 deadline for withdrawal of candidature. 
Fakhrul at a briefing at BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office on Monday said that the party was giving nomination letters to more than one candidate, even three in some cases, for each seat so that if any candidate could not contest the polls, alternative one would remain in the race. 
He said that they had taken the tactic also keeping in mind sharing of seats with parties in the two alliances.
He could not confirm the number of seats to be shared with the allies.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net