Bangladesh High Court upholds decision to invalidate candidacy of politician accused of assaulting journalist and threatening police

The Bangladesh Excessive Courtroom rejected on Thursday a writ petition filed by Mostafizur Rahman Chowdhary, an Awami League-nominated candidate, and affirmed the choice of the Election Fee (EC) of Bangladesh to cancel Chowdhary’s candidacy for Chittagong-16 amid allegations that Chowdhary assaulted a journalist and threatened police.

Justices Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman and Md Bashir Ullah rejected the petition ruling that the writ petition was not offered correctly and steered that an enchantment could possibly be moved to a tribunal earlier than the EC. The Election Fee secretary Mohammad Jahangir Alam alleged that the EC determined to cancel Chowdhary’s candidacy on the final stage of voting which came about on January 7 because of threats made towards legislation enforcement. On the day of the current election, Chowdhary allegedly went to the police station and threatened them saying that he would “chop off their palms in the event that they arrested his followers” as motion was being taken towards his followers who had been allegedly attempting to disrupt polling.

Chowdhary has been contesting the election from Chittagong-16 for the third consecutive time, and beforehand received parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2018. Final 12 months, on November 30, Chowdhary and his supporters allegedly assaulted Rokib Uddin, a reporter for Unbiased TV, and verbally abused him.  It was reported that Chowdhary dedicated an “electoral crime” below article 73 and article 84A of the Illustration of the Individuals Order (RPO), 1972. Chowdhary surrendered earlier than the court docket on January 3 and secured a bail over allegations of violating the Candidate’s election Code of Conduct, 2008 and assaulting a journalist.

Bangladesh performed its twelfth parliamentary election on January 7 which witnessed widespread violence, arrests and detentions.  The election noticed the incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina profitable her fifth time period. The election was boycotted by the opposition get together who referred to as it a “sham”. The United Nations expressed concern over the violence through the election interval.