MUNICIPAL POLLS : Ministers, lawmakers flouting electoral code

The Election Commission is receiving increasing number of complaints of violation of electoral code of conduct by ministers and ruling Awami League MPs, said officials.
They said that the ministers and MPs were campaigning for the ruling party’s mayoral candidates flouting the rules.
To prevent the violations, they said, the EC on Thursday asked the returning officer of Phulpur, Mymensingh to serve show-cause notices on information minister Hasanul Haq Inu and religious affairs minister Motiur Rahman for campaigning for the AL’s mayoral candidate flouting the electoral code of conduct.
Earlier, three AL MPs  apologized to the EC for the same offence.
The check the violations, the EC on Thursday decided to send a written request to the speaker to refrain MPs from violating the electoral code of conduct.
The EC decision was prompted by its monitoring cell reporting that a large number of MPs flouted the electoral rules, an election commissioner told New Age.
The EC also asked returning officer of Phulpur to serve show-cause notices on both the ministers, EC secretary M Sirajul Islam told New Age.
On Sunday, both ministers addressed a road side campaign rally at Phulpur,  Mymensingh, in gross violation of the electoral code of conduct, said EC officials.
They said that the EC would serve show-cause notices on several ruling Awami League MPs in a day or two.
They said that the allegations against the ruling party MPs were under examination by the EC.
They said that the EC monitoring cell forwarded the allegations against the MPs to the chief election commissioner.
New Age learnt that the monitoring forwarded the complaints against several MPs, including Natore-4 constituency’s Abdul Kuddus, Abdur Rahman of Faridpur-2,  Sohrabuddin Ahmed of Kishoreganj-2  and Afzal Hossain of Kishoreganj-5.
On Thursday, the EC in a letter requested the home ministry  to provide security to all the candidates.
The EC request followed media reports that mayoral candidates of BNP were not in seen most of the places on Wednesday, when the campaigns began.
The EC asked the home ministry to be extra alert in maintaining law and order providing candidates’ security  until the election, said EC deputy secretary Shamsul Alam.
On Thursday, the second day of the campaigns, AL’s  mayoral candidates and their campaigners took out processions violating the electoral code of conduct in some of the places, reported New Age correspondents.
Some of the mayoral candidates of the ruling party also carried boats, AL’s election symbol though on Wednesday the EC prohibited its use before December 14, they reported.
New Age Rajshahi correspondent reported that some of the mayoral candidates of AL used the party’s election symbol in their posters flouting the electoral code of conduct.
AL’s mayoral nominee for Tanore municipality Imrul Haque used the ruling party’s election symbol in his campaign  posters, he reported.
Contacted by New Age Imrul blamed his supporters for using AL’s election symbol in his campaign posters without his permission.
Tanore upazila returning officer Rabiul Alom told New Age that he served show-cause notice on Imrul and asked him to remove the posters.
Sirajganj municipality’s  AL mayoral candidate Syed Abdur Rauf Mukhtar also used the ruling party’s election symbol in his posters, reported our correspondent.
Returning officer of Sirajganj  Muhammad Kamrul Hasan said that the issue was under investigation.
As women contesting from the reserved seats of councillors raised objections to allocation of frocks, vanity bags and similar other election symbols to them and described such symbols as humiliating, the EC secretary said that this happened as the EC got little time to select the symbols.
He said that the EC had no intention to humiliate the women candidates.
His reaction followed a written protest from Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal delegation against allocation of ‘humiliating’ symbols to women candidates.
The EC could not provide the number of cancelled nomination papers though it completed the scrutiny five days back on Sunday.
It would be the first municipal polls in which the recently amended law  allowed political parties to nominate mayoral candidates.
Out of the country’s 323 municipalities, 234 would go to  polls on December 30.

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