Local people very apprehensive over city polls: Shujan

Badiul Alam Majumder
Badiul Alam Majumder

Shushanar Janniya Nagorik (Shujan) secretary Badiul Alam Majumder said the people in Khulna and Gazipur city corporations are very apprehensive over the upcoming elections.

Badiul said this at a press conference on the information of the candidates at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) on Thursday.

The Sujan secretary said they had seen the apprehension of people while working in those two city corporations. He called on the election commission (EC) to crosscheck all the information provided by the candidates through affidavit.

Mentioning that hiding information in affidavits is a criminal offence, he said the EC can cancel anyone’s candidacy for this. He hoped the EC would use this power should anyone is found guilty.

Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik said verifying the information of all candidates within such a short time is tough. This can be done for the winners within a week of the announcement of the polls’ results. If anyone is found guilty of hiding information, his/her candidacy can be cancelled.

Shujan said the educational qualification of 46.66 per cent candidates in Gazipur is below secondary school level. However, all the mayoral candidates are graduates.

In Khulna, the educational qualification of 34.45 per cent candidates is below secondary school level.

Among the 345 candidates in Gazipur, 219 are businessmen while 126 among 192 candidates in Khulna are businessmen.

Syed Abul Maksud presided over the press conference where Sujan coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar presented the information of the candidates.