EC to honour court verdict on participation of convicts in polls: Quader

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said the Election Commission (EC) will honour the final verdict of the court on the issue of participation of any convicted person in the polls.

“This time it is a matter of not political polarization, but equation. We need to have patience to see how far this equation will go,” he said, speaking at a press conference at AL president political office in city’s Dhanmondi.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said Awami League has given nomination to 231 candidates. Of them, 45 candidates are new, he added.

About the final list of AL-led grand alliance candidates, he said the final list will have to be published before the last date of withdrawal of candidature set by the EC. But the alliance is trying to publish the final list after a scrutiny of the nominations, he added.

The AL general secretary said it is not yet clear what BNP wants to do about the election and their (BNP) process of selecting candidates is also questionable.

He said BNP is patron of militancy. The party gave nomination to the children of war criminals and the persons who are involved in militancy, he added.

Quader said BNP can create an issue for foiling the polls. Now, they want removal of chief election commissioner (CEC), he added.

He said the four senior members of AL, who didn’t get nominations, will be included in the election conducting committee of the party.

AL Joint General Secretary Abdur Rahman, Science and Technology Affairs Secretary Engineer Abdus Sabur, Education and Human Resources Secretary Shamsun Nahar Chapa, Deputy Office Secretary Barrister Biplob Barua and AL central leaders SM Kamal Hossain and Marufa Akther Popy, among others, were present.