Bangladesh HC gives split verdict on allowing Zia to contest polls

Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict over whether imprisoned former prime minister and main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia should be allowed to contest the upcoming general election even as campaigning began for the December 30 polls.

One of the judges of the two-member High Court bench favoured Zia's candidacy while the other ruled that she was disqualified from the polls for being a convicted prisoner serving a 10-year jail term in two graft cases, court officials and lawyers said.

"As the two judges could not reach a consensus, in line with the practice, they referred the matter to the chief justice who will now send the case to another bench for hearing the case," an official said.

The ruling came after 73-year-old Zia challenged an earlier decision of the Election Commission to scrap her candidacy as the ex-premier filed nomination papers for contesting polls from three constituencies.

Senior judge of the bench Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed in his ruling asked the EC to accept Zia's nomination and simultaneously sought the commission's explanation on why its decision to scrap her candidacy should not be declared illegal.

But the other judge Justice Iqbal Kabir, on the other hand, blocked Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Zia from contesting the polls.

Zia on December 9 had challenged the EC order disqualifying her from contesting the polls while the High Court had earlier ruled that those jailed for more than two years, with their appeals pending in court, cannot contest polls.

She has been in prison since February this year when a lower court sentenced her to a five-year term in the first of two corruption cases while a special court in Dhaka has ordered her appearance in a third graft case.

Meanwhile, formal campaigning for the polls started on Tuesday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began the campaign for her Awami League from southwestern Tungipara sub-district, the birthplace of her father and Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was assassinated in a 1975 coup along with most of his family members.