Dhaka, April 23 (bdnews24.com) -- The election commission of the Bangladesh Football Federation Wednesday rejected an appeal to scrap the candidatures of Kazi Salahuddin, Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu and Golam Rabbani Helal.
"It was settled earlier as the complaint did not file the allegations in time," said chief election commissioner Mesbah Uddin after hearing the issue for one and an half hours at the BFF House in Arambagh.
The commission scrutinised the nominations on April 21.
Replying to a query, Mesbah said he had arranged the hearing to prove himself unbiased.
The verdict meant there is no barrier for Salahuddin, Chunnu and Helal to contest as president, vice president and member respectively.
Barrister Tania Amir stood for the defendants, while Barrister Omar Sadat for the complaint.
Shamsul Haq Chowdhury, councillor from the Chittagong Football Association Monday, lodged an appeal with the election commission demanding the cancellation of the three candidates for hiding relevant information in their nominations for the April 28 election.
The nomination rules asked whether the candidate was earlier found guilty of criminal offences or convicted of crimes.
The three filled out the nomination applications saying they had not been found guilty or convicted under the Criminal Procedure Code, but the complainant Tuesday in support of his appeal submitted two news clippings published in the Daily Ittefaq and the Dainik Bangla on Sept 23, 1982.
The stories say a court had sentenced Helal and Anwar Hossain to six months and Salahuddin and Chunnu to one month and fined each Tk 1,000 for beating an assistant referee during a match against Mohammedan SC in 1982.
Four Abahani players were arrested for the incident and found guilty in a one-day trial under the martial law the next day.
All four footballers, however, came out of prison after 17 days following presidential clemency.
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