Appellate division upholds HC decision to cancel candidacy of Barishal-4's Shammi Ahmed

The Appellate Division has upheld the High Court's decision to cancel the candidacy of Awami League candidate Shammi Ahmed from the Barishal-4 constituency.

With this, she no longer has any other option to appeal for candidacy.

On Monday (18 December), the High Court dismissed the writ challenging the decision of the Election Commission to cancel the candidature of the Barishal-4 candidate on the charge of having dual citizenship.

Appellate Division Chamber Justice M Inayetur Rahim upheld the order of the High Court when she applied on Tuesday for a stay of the High Court's order.

Senior lawyer Momtaz Uddin Fakir, Advocate Shah Manjurul Haque, and Advocate Saeed Ahmed Raza heard on behalf of Shammi in the court.

Previously on 4 December, the Election Commission (EC) cancelled the nomination of Awami League leader Shammi Ahmed for Barishal-4 (Hijla-Mehendiganj) in the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad polls over holding dual citizenship.

At the same time, the EC announced the nomination of Pankaj Nath, the incumbent lawmaker for the seat, as valid on Monday (4 December).

Pankaj on Sunday alleged that Shammi, who is the international affairs secretary of the Awami League, holds the citizenship for both Bangladesh and Australia.

In a similar fashion, Shammi alleged that Pankaj, in his wealth statement, hid his ownership of public transportation Bihanga Paribahan that runs in several routes in Dhaka.

Following the scrutiny of the allegations, Barishal Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Islam, who is also the returning officer for the district, announced the cancellation of Shammi's candidacy at around 3:30pm on Monday (4 December) in the meeting room of the district administration.

He said according to the Representation of the People Order, 1972, an election candidate cannot hold dual citizenship. Hence, Shammi's nomination has been cancelled.

Besides, the nomination of 10 more aspiring national polls candidates have been cancelled while the nomination of 45 candidates have been accepted.

The returning officer said a total of 55 candidates had collected nominations for the Barishal-4 seat.

Pankaj was expelled from the Awami League in September 2022 for violating party discipline after he was allegedly heard telling a police official that he would hack the Hijla municipal mayor.

The AL did not nominate Pankaj this time, instead went with Shammi. Followers of the incumbent MP had claimed that he would not run in the 12th JS polls. But in a surprising move, he submitted his nomination paper for the Barishal-4 seat on 28 November.