The Election Commission (EC) has asked the returning officers (ROs) of two parliamentary constituencies to allocate electoral symbols for a BNP and an AL nominee as independent candidates since their previous symbols were scrapped following court orders.
The EC Secretariat in a surprise move on Friday night issued the circular asking the ROs to do so, ignoring the electoral laws that do not allow the two parliamentary aspirants for Chandpur-1 and Comilla-10 constituencies to contest the election as independent candidates.
The RO of Comilla-10 constituency allocated BNP's electoral symbol 'sheaf of paddy' to Abdul Gafur Bhuiyan following a court order.
He also allocated 'deer' symbol to Mobashwer Alam Bhuyian, who earlier got the BNP's electoral symbol, as an independent candidate.
RO Manzurur Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday over telephone that he allocated the symbol to Mobashwer as per the EC directive.
"Initially, I did not allocate any symbol to Mobasser Alam Bhuiyan. But later I did so after receiving the commission's directive," he said.
Another RO in Chandpur-1 constituency did not allocate any symbol to Mir Mohammad Iqbal Hossain, who earlier got AL's electoral symbol 'boat.'
The RO on Friday amended the candidate's list and allocated 'boat' symbol to Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, who got back candidacy following a court order.
As per the electoral laws, an individual seeking to be an independent candidate must submit signatures of one percent voters in his constituency with the application for candidacy.
Talking to The Daily Star over the telephone yesterday, RO AKM Shahidur Rahman said he did not allocate electoral symbol to Iqbal as the electoral laws do not permit him to do so.
Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, however, said they are bound to follow the court orders.
"We shall implement the court orders even if it is against the Representation of the People Order," Sakhawat told reporters at his office yesterday.
Asked whether multiple candidates of a party will contest the election from a single constituency, the election commissioner said the parties will have to decide on it.
"If a party fails to do so, both of its nominees will contest the election," he said.
Meanwhile, Mobashwer Alam Bhuiyan, whose electoral symbol 'sheaf of paddy' was scrapped, filed a compliant with the EC yesterday claiming that the RO did not act in line with the court order.
The Appellate Division gave orders to accept Abdul Gafur Bhuiyan's nomination. But it did not give any directives to allocate 'sheaf of paddy' to him as electoral symbol, said Mobashwer's counsel and eminent jurist M Zahir in a written prayer to the EC.
Documents show that the RO cancelled Gafur Bhuiyan's nomination during scrutiny as he filed nomination paper as both a BNP and an independent candidate. The EC also rejected Gafur's appeal against the RO's decision.
Talking to reporters at the EC Secretariat yesterday, Mobashwer said he would go to the court to challenge the RO's decision of allocating 'sheaf of paddy' symbol to Gafur Bhuiyan if the EC does not take any action in this regard.