DHAKA, – Thirteen aspirants out of 14 vying for the mayoral posts of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) have been declared valid by the Election Commission.

The nomination of Jatiya Party candidate for DNCC mayoral post GM Qamrul Islam, however, was cancelled during the scrutiny as his name was not in the DNCC voter list, DNCC Returning Officer Md Abul Kashem said after scrutinizing the nomination papers.

Candidacies of six other contenders of DNCC mayoral post were found to be valid, he said.

The valid candidates for the DNCC mayoral post are: Atiqul Islam of Awami League (AL), Tabith Awal of BNP, Shahin Khan of Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), Fazle Bari Masud of Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Sajedul Haque of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Anisur Rahman Dewan of National People’s Party (NPP). Besides, all aspirants for the DSCC mayoral post have been declared valid, DSCC Returning Officer Abdul Batenn said after scrutinizing the nomination papers.

The valid aspirants for the DSCC mayoral post are: Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh of AL, Ishraq Hossain of BNP, Saifuddin Ahmed Milon of Jatiya Party, Md Abdur Rahman of Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Bahrane Sultan Bahar of NPP, Md Aktar Uzzaman alias Ayatullah of Bangladesh Congress and Abdus Samad Sujan of Gono Front.

Earlier, a total of 14 aspirants, seven for each city corporation, submitted their nomination papers for vying the mayoral posts in the two Dhaka city corporation polls slated for January 30.

According to the polls schedule, December 31 was the last date for submitting nomination paper. Today was set for scrutinizing nomination papers while the last date for withdrawing candidacy is January 9.

The aspirants can lodge appeals to the appellate authority against the Returning Officers’ decision by January 5 while election symbol will be distributed among the candidates on January 10.