The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Parliamentary Board of BNP headed by party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia yesterday wrapped up interviews of 1,489 aspirants for party tickets to contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for December 29.

An 11-member Parliamentary Board started the interview of party nomination seekers at her Gulshan office in the city on Thursday.

The highest number of 604 nomination seekers were interviewed from Dhaka Division while 316 from Chittagong Division, 287 from Rajshahi Division, 133 from Khulna Division, 114 from Barisal Division and only 40 from Sylhet Division.

Insiders said the Parliamentary Board has taken interview to provide party nominations from about 263, out of all 300 constituencies. The rest 37 seats are learnt to be reserved for four-party alliance partners, Jamaat, Islami Oikya Jote and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP).

Briefing journalists after completion of interviews, BNP Office Secretary Rizvi Ahmed said the party nominations would be announced after scrutiny by the review committee, the meeting of which was in progress till filing of this report at 10:00pm yesterday.

He said the nominations will be announced after the meeting of the review committee with BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in the chair.

Meanwhile, thousand of party activists and supporters milled around the office building spilling over to the adjacent areas. They were found dancing and chanting party slogans.

The Parliamentary Board members included party Secretary General Khandker Delwar Hossain, standing committee members Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, Chowdhury Tanveer Ahmed Siddiqui, RA Ghani, M Shamsul Islam and Mahbubur Rahman.

Traffic movement on the road in front of the office remained disrupted which created a serious traffic jam in the nearby roads and lanes. Security has been beefed up in the area on the occasion.