Staff Correspondent

Twenty-two aspirants of the upcoming national polls - whose nominations were initially cancelled by respective returning officers (RO) of their seats - got their candidacy back on the sixth and last day of the Election Commission's (EC) appeal hearing.

Led by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, the EC delivered the verdicts after reviewing the appeals at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city's Agargaon area this (December 15) afternoon.

The commission reviewed a total of 84 appeals today. Of them, 62 were rejected.

A total of 282 candidates regained their candidacy -- for the upcoming national polls -- after appealing to the Election Commission against the Returning Officer's decision to revoke their nominations.

Concerned aspirants were present during the appeal hearing with their legal representatives and the essential documents.

Earlier, on the first day of appeal hearing, 56 of the aspirants got back their candidature while 51 on the second day, 61 on third day, 48 on fourth day and 44 on the fifth day regained their candidacy.

There is a scope for the aspirants to go to the High Court if they are not satisfied with the EC's decision.

A total of 2,716 aspirants submitted nomination papers to vie in the upcoming 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections.

Of them, 1,985 nomination papers were accepted and 731 were cancelled by returning officers (ROs) during the scrutiny between December 1 and 4. Challenging ROs decisions over rejection and acceptance of nomination papers, 561 appeals were lodged with the EC between December 5 and 9.
As per the election schedule, the last date for withdrawing candidature is December 17 while the ROs will distribute election symbols among candidates on December 18.