In Bangladesh, Election Commission has rejected jailed former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s plea to contest December 30 polls. The commission rejected her petition by 4-1 votes.
The Bangladesh High Court had earlier issued an order disqualifying 73-year-old Zia, now serving a 10-year prison term in two corruption cases, from contesting elections. It said people jailed for more than two years with their appeals pending in court cannot fight elections. The opposition BNP leader has been in prison since February when a lower court sentenced her to a five-year term in the first of the two graft cases.
Zia had filed nomination papers from three constituencies, two in northwestern Bogra and one in southeastern Feni. The Election is crucial for Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNS), which boycotted the 2014 polls demanding a neutral non-party government.
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