Awami League handing out confirmation letters

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) on Sunday started issuing letters to the candidates the party nominated for the upcoming 11th parliamentary elections to be held on 30 December.

On Saturday, the candidates were asked to collect their letters from the AL president’s Dhanmondi office in the capital.

AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina will compete from Gopalganj-3 and Rangpur-6 constituencies while party general secretary Obaidul Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, will compete from Noakhali-5.

AL general secretary Obaidul Quader started handing over the letters to the candidates from 10:00am.

Besides, Mujibul Huq (Cumilla-11), speaker Dipu Moni (Chandpur-3), SM Rezaul Karim (Pirojpur-1), Saifuzzaman Shikhar (Magura-1), Sheikh Fazle Nur Tapos (Dhaka-10), home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal (Dhaka-12), Sadek Khan (Dhaka-13), Aslamul Haque (Dhaka-14), Nizamuddin Hazari (Feni-2), Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury (Dinajpur-2), Simin Hossain RImi (Gazipur-4), Fahmi Golandaz Babel (Mymensingh-10), Sheikh Jewel (Khulna-2), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Narail-2), Muhibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel (Chattogram-9), Dr Abdur Razzak (Tangail-1) and Enamul Haque (Rajshahi-4) also got party tickets to contest in the polls.

The candidates nominated from other parties of the 14-party alliance and grand alliances are likely to be announced on Monday.

Quader said he will make the final announcement of all the 300 candidates later.

On Saturday night, Quader held meetings with the leaders of JaSad and Workers’ Party, components of the 14-party alliance, at AL headquarters in the capital about seat sharing.

Later, he held another meeting with JaPa (Jatiya Party) leader and former dictator HM Ershad, a component of Grand Alliance, for four hours and gave hints about the seats to be shared with them.

The alliance partners tried to negotiate for more seats than the AL was ready to share with them.

Quader told them they will issue letters to the AL nominated candidates on Sunday and the alliance partners’ candidates on the next day.

If the matter is not resolved by then, party chief Sheikh Hasina will consider the matter, he added.

“The issue of seat sharing is still under discussion. All the candidates of Grand Alliance will be announced formally by two days,” Quader told newsmen after the discussion.

He, however, hinted that they would share not more than 65-70 seats with alliance partners, including the JaPa.

Source: Prothomalo