Dhaka: BNP on Tuesday demanded the Election Commission (EC) either allow alternative candidates or reschedule the election date for those constituencies where BNP candidates have been declared illegal by the High Court.

‘Already, our eight candidates have been declared illegal by the court. We declared one candidate for each constituency who were declared legal by the EC. If these candidates are declared illegal now, who’ll take the responsibility?,’ BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan wanted to know, reports the UNB.

The BNP leader came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after a meeting with the CEC and its other officials at Nirbachan Bhaban here. 

When the Election Commission declared them legal, the court is declaring them illegal. If there was any mistake it was done by the EC, he said.

‘We’ve proposed the Election Commission two things — either allow us to field alternative candidates to those constituencies where BNP candidates have been declared illegal by the court or reschedule the election there,’ he said.

The Election Commission heard our complaints and said they will take a decision in this regard soon, he said.

The High Court declared eight BNP aspirants illegal who were earlier declared qualified by the returning officers and the Election Commission. The eight aspirants filed nominations for Jamalpur-4, Bagura-3, Brahmanbaria-4, Rangpur-1, Mymensingh-8, Jhenaidah-2, Joypurhat-1 and Rajshahi-6.

BNP Vice Chairman Selima Rahman, Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, BNP Chairperson’s Adviser Bijan Kanti Sarker were present.