The ruling Awami League (AL) has already finalised candidates in all the 300 seats for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election scheduled to be held on January 7, 2024 with a major change keeping a large number of existing lawmakers away, said sources in the Awami League.
The sources also said, a large number of new faces, including young leaders and celebrities may be replaced. Cricketers and film stars are also going to be nominated.
Names of the party candidates may be announced today (Sunday) following a view exchange meeting with all the 3362 aspirants.
Awami League President and party's parliamentary nomination board chief Sheikh Hasina will exchange views with the party’s aspirants at her official Ganabhaban residence at 10:00 am.
AL office secretary Barrister Biplab Barua on Saturday said Awami League President Sheikh Hasina will chair the meeting.
He said, party general secretary Obaidul Quader has requested all member of Awami League's National Election Steering Committee formed for the 12th JS polls and party's all the nomination seekers to attend the meeting on time with photo-copy of NID card and received copy of nomination papers (photo-copy of online forms).
Awami League official sources said, candidatures for all the 300 seats have been finalized in three phases in separate meetings held on November 22, 23 and 24.
Earlier, the party distributed nomination forms for the party aspirants from November 18 to November 21 and a total of 3362 forms were collected by the aspirants.
Sources in the AL said a large number of party leaders, who have been elected many times but now they have become older may not get party tickets.
Besides, those who did not keep contact with the voters and local people has been kept out of the list.
However, the candidature may be reshuffled in cases of candidates from the partners of the alliance. The issue of candidatures for the alliance partners is yet to be finalized.
According to sources, the AL may sacrifice 50 to 70 seats for its alliance partners.
It should be mentioned that all the 14-party alliance partners are willing to participate in the JS polls in alliance with the AL.
But, the AL has decided to take part in the polls in alliance and also alone.
On the other hand, excepting for BNP and some other parties are yet to take decision, most of the political parties are going to take part in the election.
They have already completed the distribution of nomination forms to their own aspirants while many of the parties have already finalized their candidatures.
In the circumstances, the JS polls are going to be held in a festive manner in participation with most of the political parties and mass people of the country.
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.