Five days out from Bangladesh's 12th Jatiya Sangshad elections, the number of show-cause notices issued against candidates or their campaign personnel for alleged violations of the electoral code of conduct is nearing the 500-mark.
The most severe outcome of these complaints among the candidates was suffered on Tuesday by the independent candidate for Laxmipur-1, Mohammad Habibur Rahman Paban, who ended up expelled from the race for repeated violations of the electoral code and committing electoral offenses.
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As of Tuesday, the Election Commission had served a total of 480 show-cause notices to different candidates for breaching the code of conduct, said an EC official.
Some obviously were repeat offenders, and accordingly have been the recipients of more than one, in some cases multiple notices for alleged violations of the code.
All 480 complaints triggered their own investigation or probe, of which the commission has already received the inquiry reports for 304 incidents, leading to further action over 101 of these incidents so far.
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According to the EC’s division-wise breakdown, the highest 119 show-cause notices have been issued against the candidates in Dhaka division, followed by 74 in Rajshahi, 68 in Cumilla, 49 in Mymensingh, 40 in Khulna, 38 in Chattogram, 29 in Rangpur, 27 in Barishal, 20 in Faridpur and 16 in Sylhet.
Paban, the expelled independent candidate, is said to be an influential Jubo League presidium member. Yet he was seen publicly berating and belittling other suspects, including the deputy commissioner of the district, and the police SP.
The evidence that sealed his fate in front of the jury was a phone call to the Deputy Commissioner of his district, and the Returning Officer through WhatsApp at 7:30 pm on December 30, that only came through as inaudible, objectionable and indecent statements interlaced with threats.
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