The Election Commission (EC) has cleared candidacy of 119 parliamentary aspirants including seven from Awami League (AL) and BNP each during hearings of appeals filed against cancellation of nomination papers by Returning Officers (ROs).

Meanwhile, many aspirants whose candidacy were either accepted or rejected by the EC at the end of hearings on Wednesday night waited for the certified copy of EC decision at the commission secretariat until yesterday evening.

The EC secretariat was very sluggish in completing formalities, which according to many aspirants caused difficulty in withdrawing candidacy and filing appeals with the High Court (HC) against the commission's decision.

Admitting the commission's slow pace of work. Election Commissioner Sohul Hossain told reporters last night that the commission extended the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers to 10:00pm from 5:00pm yesterday. "We extended the deadline to facilitate commission's activities," he added.

Of the 119 aspirants, 21 are Jatiya Party (Ershad) nominees, about two dozen are independent candidates, two are Jamaat candidates while the rest are from small political parties, EC officials said.

The ROs cancelled nomination papers of 557 candidates on various grounds. Of those, 300 filed appeals with the EC challenging the cancellation. The commission held hearings of the appeals on December 7,8 and 10.

The seven AL nominees whose candidacy was cleared by the EC are Nabi Newaz (Jhenidah-3), Fazle Rabbi (Gaibandha-5), Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury (Feni-2), ASM Firoz (Patuakhali-2), AK Khandaker (Pabna-2), Harun-or-Rashid (Laxmipur-2) and Mostak Ahmed Chowdhury (Cox's Bazar-3).

The seven BNP candidates include Rafiqul Islam Jamal (Jhalakathi-1), Md Shahabuddin (Dhaka-11), Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury (Chittagong-5), Mobashwer Alam Bhuiyan (Comilla-10), Mostafa Kamal Pasha (Chittagong-16), Shah Alam Reza (Faridpur-4) and Harun-or-Rashid (Chandpur-4).

The two Jamaat candidates are Md Nazrul Islam (Gaibandha-3) and Rafiqul Islam Khan (Sirajganj-4).

Meanwhile, the EC cancelled candidacy of three aspirants out of 83 against whom complaints were lodged with the EC challenging the commission's, acceptance of nominations.

The three are BNP nominee Abdul Hannan, JP candidate Kazi Zafar Ahmed and independent candidate Abdus Sobhan.

The ROs will finalise candidacy and allocate election symbol to the candidates today.

The election campaigning starts across the country today.

A total of 2,460 applications for candidacy were filed with the EC for the upcoming parliamentary election, a record low since the 1991 national election, according to commission sources.

HC CLEARS CANDIDACYOF 9 The HC yesterday directed the EC to accept until December 14 the nomination papers of nine candidates of the upcoming parliamentary election as they appealed against the commission's cancellation of their candidature.

They are Awami League candidate Maj Gen (retd) Abdus Salam (Mymensingh-9), BNP candidate Majeda Ahsan (Chandpur-4), independent candidate Shah Md Abul Hossain (Barisal-4), Liberal Democratic Party candidate Mamdudur Rahman Chowdhury (Bogra-4), Abdul Aziz Mollah (Joypurhat-2), Abdul Jabbar (Pirojpur-3), Omar Sadat (Jessore-6), Kazi Nabil Ahmed (Jessore-4) and Abdul Qaiyum Chowdhury (Sylhet-3).

Upon separate appeals filed by the candidates, the vacation bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury fixed December 14 for hearing their appeals before the regular benches of the HC.

The nine candidates submitted copies of the court orders to the EC.

The HC bench also sent back the appeals of Jatiya Party candidates Kazi Zafar Ahmed (Comilla-11) and Fakir Ashraf (Netrakona-3), Awami League candidate Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir (Chandpur-4) and BNP candidate Shahidul Alam Talukdcr (Patuakhali-2) and asked them to move the appeals before the regular bench on December 14

The EC had cancelled nomination papers of aspirants on different grounds including their conviction in criminal cases and charges of defaulting loans.

Sources said the HC asked the EC to accept nomination papers of those charged with minor allegation of being guarantors for loan defaulters and did not entertain the appeals of convicts or loan defaulters.

Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud, Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmed and barrister MoInu 1 Hosein appeared for the candidates while advocate Mahmudul Islam and advocate Shahdeen Malik stood for the EC.