49 woman candidates set to be elected unopposed
The Election Commission is going to declare 49 candidates elected unopposed for the parliamentary seats reserved for women as the commission’s scrutiny on Tuesday found all of them valid.
Returning officer of the Election Commission Abul Kasem said that the commission would declare all 49 candidates winners unopposed as no contestant are in race against them on February 17 and if none withdraw nomination paper in the last date of withdrawal on February 16.
According to the commission, 43 Awami League candidates submitted nomination papers against 50 reserved seats of the 11th parliament. Four aspirants of Jatiya Party and one from Workers’ Party of Bangladesh also submitted their nomination papers.
The reserved seats for women are allocated to political parties in proportion to their number of seats in parliament.
Accordingly, 43 seats are allocated to Awami League, four to Jatiya Party, one each to Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Workers’ Party and one each to the independent candidates.
BNP, however, did not submit nomination paper as the party is unlikely to join the parliament since they have been demanding a fresh election after the December 30 general election which the BNP leaders binned for it was marked by ‘scandalous electoral fraud.’
On February 3, the commission announced the election schedule for the reserved seats.
Article 65 of the constitution says that the 50 reserved seats exclusively for woman members will be elected by the already elected parliament
members, MPs in short, following the system of proportional representation in the parliament through single transferable vote. Only MPs who took their oaths of office are allowed to vote in the election for the women’s reserved seats.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net