JCD election's nomination form sale postponed

Amid the agitation by the aggrieved group of leaders of its dissolved committee, the distribution of nomination forms among the aspirants for contesting the election to Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal's president and general secretary posts was postponed on Thursday.

JCD is the student wing of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Talking to UNB, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, BNP vice chairman and ex-president of JCD, said they could not sell the nomination forms today as per the schedule due to some internal problems. "We've postponed the sale for today (Thursday). We're now in a meeting to resolve the problem and will take the decision about the nomination sale tomorrow (Friday)," he said.

Earlier on 23 June, convener of JCD election management committee and chief election commissioner Khairul Kabir Khokon announced the schedule for the election to its new committee's president and general secretary posts.

As per the schedule, nomination papers were supposed to be distributed on 27-28 June.

Meanwhile, the aggrieved JCD leaders and activists took position in front of BNP's Naya Paltan central office with sticks and cricket stumps around 1:00pm and staged demonstration there demanding the cancellation of the election to BNP's student body's election.

They damaged the close circuit camera on the ground floor of the office and switched off the main switch of power connection to it.

The protesters also threw eggs towards the third floor of the BNP office where ex-JCD leaders were staying.

They demanded withdrawal of a specific age limit in contesting the election, expulsion order against their 12 leaders and annulling the election schedule.

The protesters ended their agitation around 4:00pm calling upon the BNP leaders to resolve the problem in discussions with them.

JCD's last committee was formed on 14 October, 2014 with Rajib Ahsan as its president and Akramul Hasan as general secretary and it was dissolved on June 3 last.

A BNP press release, signed by Rizvi on 3 June, said candidates planning to vie for various posts will have to be primary members, students of any educational institution in Bangladesh, and must have passed SSC and equivalent examinations either 2000 or later on, prompting a group of leaders staging demonstration seeking the withdrawal of age limit.