Staff Reporter:
The Election Commission (EC) yesterday announced the detailed schedule for filing, hearing and dispos-al of appeals against the Returning Officers’ decisions on acceptance and rejection of nomination papers for the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) election.
“Any aggrieved candidate, bank or financial institutions, government service-providing institution, or a duly authorized representative of a candidate may file an appeal with the Election Commission within five days following the scrutiny of nomination papers,” said the EC notification issued yesterday,
It said that appeals, along with one set of original documents and six photocopies, must be submitted in the form of a memorandum to the Election Commission by 5:00 pm on January 9.
To facilitate the process, the EC has set up a dedicated appeal submission centre in front of the Election Commission building at Agargaon in the capital. A total of 10 regional booths have been established there to receive appeals.
The Election Commission said hearings on the appeals will be conducted by the full commission at the Election Building’s auditorium (Basement-2) from January 10 to January 18.
The hearing schedule has been fixed as follows: appeals numbered 1 to 70 will be heard on January 10 starting at 10:00 am; 70 to 140 on January 11; 141 to 210 on January 12; 211 to 280 on January 13; 281 to 350 on January 14; 351 to 420 on January 15; 421 to 490 on January 16; 491 to 560 on January 17; and appeals numbered 561 onwards on January 18.
After completion of hearings, the results of the appeals will be displayed on monitors at the venue. The EC will also send PDF copies of the verdicts and appeal decisions to the email accounts of the concerned Returning Officers and other relevant parties, while publishing them on the Election Commission’s offi-cial website.
Printed copies of the appeal verdicts will be distributed according to the schedule through designated officials at the reception desk of the Election Building.
The EC said verdict copies for appeals heard on January 10, 11 and 12 will be distributed on January 12, those heard on January 13, 14 and 15 on January 15, and verdicts for appeals heard on January 16, 17 and 18 will be distributed on January 18.
