JSD vice-president elected unopposed to reserved seat vacated by Rumeen Farhana

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) vice-president Afroza Haque Reena, wife of JSD president Hasanul Haque Inu, was announced unopposed winner of the by-election to a reserved women's seat of the 11th parliament, reports news agency UNB.

The seat had fallen vacant as opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Rumeen Farhana resigned from parliament in December last year.

The joint secretary of election commission, Abdul Baten announced Afroza Haque Reena as the unopposed winner as there were no other rival candidates for the seat and she didn’t withdraw her nomination by 4:00 pm Monday, the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers.

Afroza Huq submitted her nomination papers as a candidate of Awami League-led 14-party alliance on 28 February. The by-election to the seat was scheduled to be held on 20 March.

All seven BNP lawmakers resigned from their respective seats on 10 December last year following the party’s Dhaka divisional rally in the city’s Golapbagh ground.

The by-elections to six of the vacant seats were held on 1 February. The remaining seat of Rumeen Farhana needed no voting as there were no rival candidates in this seat.

Afroza was born on 5 October, 1951, in Nawabganj, Dhaka. She joined the East Pakistan Chhatra League while studying at Eden College. In 1969, she was elected social service secretary in the student parliament election. In 1975, she married Hasanul Haque Inu.