EC warns Nasir for violating polls law

The Election Commission has warned AJM Nasir Uddin, the Awami League-backed mayor candidate in the Chittagong City Corporation polls, for jumping the gun on campaigning and violating the electoral code of conduct.

The commission also issued a warning to Jatiya Party-backed mayor candidate Solaiman Alam and served show-cause notices upon five councilor candidates for the same reason.

“We in a statement asked him [Nasir] to be careful about the electoral code of conduct and warned him about us taking [punitive] steps if any breach [of electoral code of conduct] is discovered in future,” the returning officer for the elections told The Daily Star.

Sources said following a complaint by the BNP-sponsored mayor hopeful Manjur Alam, the EC on March 30 served a show-cause notice upon Nasir in connection with campaigning ahead of the election schedule. The election campaign is to start on April 9, according to EC schedule.

Even though Nasir was yet to respond to the notice, the returning officer said the EC officials during investigation found proof of a meeting held under the banner of “Amra Sondipbasi” at a community centre in presence of Nasir.

The EC also found evidence from media reports of a meeting held at The Peninsula hotel on March 31 in which several ministers discussed electoral strategy for Nasir.

The meeting was attended by Housing Minister Mosharraf Hossain, State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and State Minister for CHT Affairs Bir Bahadur.

The EC sought directives from the Election Commission in Dhaka regarding such meetings.

The returning officer yesterday asked the police commissioner of Chittagong city to play a neutral role.