Tasnim Jara, an independent candidate from Dhaka-9 constituency, has said she will appeal against the decision to cancel her nomination.
“I was informed that my nomination paper as an independent candidate from Dhaka-9 has not been accepted at this stage. We will file an appeal, and the process has already begun,” she told reporters.
Explaining the grounds cited by the Election Commission, Tasnim Jara said independent candidates are required under electoral rules to submit signatures of at least one percent of the total voters of the constituency.
“We submitted more signatures than required—nearly 200 extra. From those, the authorities randomly selected 10 signatures for verification,” she said.
According to her account, eight of the selected voters were found to have correct information, while issues were raised regarding the remaining two.
“In the case of the two individuals, their signatures were verified, but they were found not to be voters of Dhaka-9,” she said.
“However, neither of them was aware of this discrepancy,” she said elaborating that one of the individuals resides in Khilgaon, an area that partly falls under both Dhaka-9 and Dhaka-11 constituencies.
“He believed he was a voter of Dhaka-9 based on his National Identity Card (NID). He even checked the website but could not find his voter number. Based on his NID information, he signed the form in good faith,” she added.
Regarding the other individual, Tasnim Jara said the address on the hard copy of the NID also mentioned his address in the area under Dhaka-9 constituency, although Election Commission records showed otherwise as per latest demarcation.
“That individual also had no way of knowing that the official records list him outside Dhaka-9,” she added.
Tasnim Jara expressed hope that the two matters would be taken into consideration during the appeal hearing.
Earlier, the nomination paper of Tasnim Jara was cancelled due to discrepancies in the addresses of two supporting electorates submitted in support of her candidature.
The returning Officer of Dhaka announced it after scrutiny of the nomination papers at the office of the Divisional Commissioner in Segunbagicha this morning.
MSH
