The BNP has alleged that Khaleda Zia’s application for the Feni-1 seat has been rejected as part of the government’s plan to remove her from the 11th parliamentary election.
BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the remarks at a media briefing at the party’s central Naya Paltan office in Dhaka to respond to the decisions of election officials on Sunday, reports bdnews24.com.
“It isn’t just Khaleda Zia, election officials are rejecting selected and popular BNP leaders,” he said.
“This kind of decision is intentional and malevolent. It is a part of the government’s conspiracy to remove our national leader Khaleda Zia from nationwide popularity,” he said.
Khaleda has been in jail since February after being sentenced to prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust case. She is currently facing 10 years in prison over that case and another seven years in prison over the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
BNP leaders had submitted applications for Khaleda for three seats in Feni and Bogura for the Dec 30 poll.
Returning officials rejected Khaleda’s applications for all three seats, citing her jail sentences.
“The nominations of former Dhaka mayor Khoka’s son Ishrak Hossain for Dhaka-6, former upazila chairman Khandakar Abu Ashfaq from Nawabganj and Jahangir Hossain from Dinajpur-3 were also rejected for the same reason,” Rizvi said.
The BNP leader urged the commission to reconsider their applications. He also urged the party leaders and supporters to protest the “persecution”.
He claimed that election officials were unconcerned by the violations of the code of conduct by Awami League leaders during the submission of the nomination forms.