DHAKA: The ruling Awami League has nominated former FBCCI president Atiqul Islam as its candidate in the mayoral by-polls to the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

The party picked its candidate at a meeting of the AL’s nomination board at Prime Minister’s official residence Ganabhan in the city on Tuesday evening (January 16). The PM and AL president Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting.  

Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader revealed the party’s decision at a press conference following the meeting.  

Obaidul Quader said that a total of 18 aspirants, including two women, collected the nomination forms of the party. The aspirants brought the nomination forms from the Awami League president’s Dhanmondi office in the city in three days.  

The aspirants who collected forms include former Awami League MP Dr HBM Iqbal, Awami League’s former central working committee member Advocate Mamtaj Uddin Mehedi, FBCCI director Helal Uddin, businessmen Adam Tamiji Haq and Abed Mansur, former ward councilor Shamim Hasan, former army official Maj (retd) Yad Ali Fakir, Dhaka University teacher Zubair Alam, poet Rasel Ashiki, principal of Monipur High School & College Farhad Hossain and teacher Shah Alam.  

On January 13, the Awami League started selling nomination papers for the mayoral by-polls in a bid to select the party-backed candidate for the upcoming mayoral polls.

The form distribution continued until Monday (January 15). Every aspirant bought the nomination form in exchange of Tk 25,000.

The DNCC polls are scheduled to be held on February 26. The mayor post fell vacant following the death of Annisul Huq who died at a London hospital on November 30.

BDST: 2215 HRS, JAN 16, 2018
EHJ