Photo: Collected
Ahead of the by-election to the Thakurgaon-1 constituency, the party’s national standing committee has interviewed BNP’s nomination seekers. However, who will be the party’s candidate in this constituency will be announced after the final decision, said BNP acting Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
He said this at a briefing after a meeting of the national standing committee at the party office in Gulshan in the capital on Friday night, with Prime Minister and BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman in the chair.
Rizvi said today’s standing committee meeting was in fact a meeting of the nomination board. According to BNP’s constitution, the party’s standing committee itself is the nomination board. Candidates for the Thakurgaon-1 by-election were interviewed at the meeting, presided over by the prime minister and BNP chairman. However, the decision on who will finally get the nomination will be announced later.
In reply to a question, he said there was no discussion at the meeting about Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s visit to the United States.
Earlier, the meeting of the national standing committee, the party’s highest policymaking forum, began at the Gulshan office after 7pm on Friday. Most members of the standing committee were present at the meeting, which lasted about two hours.
According to the Election Commission’s schedule, nomination papers must be submitted to the returning officer on 27 September. Scrutiny of nomination papers is on 29 September, the last day for withdrawal of candidature is 7 October, allocation of symbols is on 8 October and voting is on 29 October.
It may be noted that the Election Commission declared the seat vacant on 20 August as former BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected president.
