The ruling Awami League finalised candidates for 69 seats in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions on Thursday, at the first meeting of the party’s nomination board on the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) polls.
AL president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at the party’s Dhaka district office in the capital’s Tejgaon.
Of them, 36 candidates are in Rajshahi division and 33 in Rangpur. However, the names of the candidates were not disclosed.
At the end of the AL nomination board, party General Secretary Obaidul Quader said, two more meetings of the nomination board will be held on Friday and Saturday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
He said after finalising the candidates for 300 seats, all the names will be announced.
Obaidul Quader said, "As November 30 is the last day to submit nominations, the names will be announced before that."
He also said, "Alliances can be formed in various ways. It is difficult to say who will form an alliance with whom, and what the end result will be. There is still time left for elections. Many can join the election.
"Many, who we did not think would take part in polls, might take part," he added.
However, the AL may not nominate candidates for all the 300 seats as the ruling party earlier said that it would take part in the JS polls in alliance with the partners of the 14-party alliance and also alone.
Besides, alongside all the partners of the AL led 14-party alliance, some other political parties have also expressed their willingness to participate in the JS polls in alliance with the AL.
As per the schedule, the 12th JS polls will be held on January 7, political parties will be able to submit nominations for candidacies till November 30, the EC will scrutinise the nomination forms from December 1-4, appeals against the nominations can be submitted from December 5-6 and nominations need to be withdrawn by December 17.
