Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday approved 73 more appeals on the fifth day of hearings against Returning Officers’ decisions on the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers for the upcoming 13th national parliamentary elections.
EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters in the evening that a total of 100 appeals were heard on the day.
Of these, 73 were approved, 17 were rejected and 10 were kept pending.
He said the commission has so far heard 380 appeals, approving 277 of them, rejecting or cancelling 81, while 23 remain pending for various reasons.
In total, 645 appeals have been filed, and EC will continue hearing them until January 18.
The hearings began at 10:00 AM at auditorium (Basement-2) of Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka's Agargaon and continued until 5:00 PM with a one-hour break at noon.
The full commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin, conducted the proceedings.
On the fifth day, appeals numbered 281 to 380 were heard. EC will hear appeals numbered 381 to 480, along with pending cases, on Thursday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Appeals numbered 481 to 510 and pending cases will be heard on January 16 (Friday) from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
The hearing process will continue with appeals numbered 511 to 610 on January 17 (Saturday), followed by appeals numbered 611 to 645 and the remaining pending cases on January 18 (Sunday), marking the conclusion of the appeal process.
Earlier, Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers had declared the nomination papers of 1,842 out of 2,568 candidates valid, while the candidatures of 723 candidates were cancelled.
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