BNP starts selling nomination forms for women’s reserved seats

“You have endured a lot of pain and suffering for this party. So, all of you will respect the party’s decision,” Rizvi says

The ruling BNP has started selling party nomination forms for the elections to the reserved seats for women in the 13th parliament.

Around 11am on Friday, the party's Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi officially started the process of selling the forms at the BNP’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Naya Paltan.

Addressing the candidates, he said: "You have come to collect the party's nomination forms. You have a desire in your heart. Everyone will collect them at their own initiative and the party's parliamentary board will take a decision. It will make a decision after taking everything into consideration."

Rizvi said, "The party's policy-making forum or parliamentary board will take a decision after considering your role in the movement, your role in the movement over the past 16-17 years, your skills and ability to speak in parliament, and all the other qualifications that you need to have."

Urging everyone to accept the decision of the board, he said: "Creating an awkward environment just because you didn't get it (the nomination) or she did get it - this cannot be done."

"You have endured a lot of pain and suffering for this party. So, all of you will respect the party’s decision. This is my firm belief."

The nomination forms will be sold from Friday to Sunday. The forms will have to be resubmitted again during this period, said Rizvi, who is also an advisor to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

Rizvi handed over the first form to Jerin Delwar Hossain. The second form was handed over to Fatema Asad, wife of Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal founding convener Kazi Asaduzzaman Asad.

Rizvi then handed over the forms to BNP's Nipun Roy Chowdhury, Arifa Sultana Ruma, Sabina Khan, Sawkat Ara Akhtar, Rokeya Chowdhury Baby, Mina Begum, Farida Yasmin, Begum Meherunnesa Haque, and Peyara Mostafa.

Hundreds of BNP women leaders arrived at the Naya Paltan office to buy the nomination forms for the reserved seats. They stood in line and paid Tk 2,000 for the form and a receipt. The excitement in the air was palpable.

The Election Commission (EC) announced the schedule for the election for women’s reserved seats on Wednesday. Accordingly, nominations can be submitted until Apr 21. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on Apr 22 and 23. If there are objections, an appeal can be filed on Apr 26. Those appeals will be settled on Apr 27 and 28.

The election symbols will be allotted to the remaining candidates on Apr 30. The vote will be held on May 12.

The Election Commission says that all preparations have been made to conduct the election in a fair and peaceful manner according to the scheduled.

According to the reserved seat distribution – divided proportionally among the parties according to their seat share in the general parliament - the BNP alliance will get 36 seats, the Jamaat-e-Islam alliance 13, and independents will get one seat.