12th national elections: 731 of 2,716 nominations rejected

Of the 2,716 nomination papers filed by aspirants for the 12th national elections, 731 have been cancelled.

Returning officers rejected the nominations after scrutinising those, Election Commission Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told reporters today at the EC Secretariat.

Nomination papers' verification deadline ended today.

However the rejected aspirants will have the scope for filing appeals with the EC from tomorrow (December 5) till Saturday (December 9), the EC said today.

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64 aspirants' nominations scrapped in 15 Dhaka metro seats

EC Joint Secretary (Law) Mahbuber Rahman Sarker said the nomination papers of aspirants were rejected mainly for three reasons.

He said mismatch in documents submitted by aspirants to prove the support of one percent voters of their constituencies is the major reason behind rejection.

Other two reasons are loan and utility bill defaults and dual citizenship, he added.

The number of nomination paper rejections by returning officers for the upcoming national polls increased compared to the last two polls. Around 26.9 percent nominations were rejected.

EC sources said that ROs rejected 786 of 3,065 nomination papers (25.6 percent) during scrutiny in the 2018 elections. Nominations papers of 321 independent were disqualified at that time.

In the 2014 elections, ROs rejected 230 out of 1,107 nominations (21 percent).

EC will dispose of the appeals from December 10 to 15.