Stay order issued on Hero Alam’s nomination cancellation

The High Court (HC) on Tuesday stalled the decision of the Election Commission to cancel the nomination papers of independent candidate Ashraful Hossain Alam, aka “Hero Alam”, for the upcoming by-election for Bogura-4 and Bogura-6 constituencies.

A rule was also issued by the High Court asking why the decision to cancel Hero Alam’s nominations would not be declared illegal.

The High Court bench of Justice M Khairuzzaman and Justice Md Iqbal Karib passed the order, following two separate writ petitions filed by Hero Alam on Monday.

Four people, including the chief election commissioner, the election commission secretary, and the district returning officer were asked to reply to the rule.

Advocate Md Yarul Islam, who appeared for the writ petitioner, said there is no bar for Hero Alam to contest in the polls following the directive of the High Court. 

Earlier, Hero Alam collected papers for contesting the upcoming by-elections for Bogura-4 and Bogura-6 as an independent candidate, but the nominations were turned down by the Election Commission.

Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam said the nomination papers of eleven candidates — including Hero Alam’s — were cancelled by the Election Commission upon finding mismatched documents against their affidavits.