The 25 members of Jamaat-e-Islami will be allowed to contest the 11th National Election, says the Election Commission.

Its Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed told the media on Sunday (Dec 23) that there was no legal option to cancel their candidacies.

The EC’s decision came after a meeting in the afternoon, which lasted for more than three hours.

The High Court had ordered the Commission to swiftly decide on a plea challenging the candidacy of the unregistered party’s member.

Twenty-two members of the party are contesting in the upcoming polls under the BNP banner with its polls logo paddy sheaf and three as independent candidates.

Briefing the media after the meeting, EC Secretary Ahmed said that there was no legal scope to scrap the 25 Jamaat members’ candidacies as no appeals were filed challenging the returning officers’ decisions with the Commission.

He said the EC will inform the High Court about its decision on Monday (Dec 24).

Responding to a query, he said that there was no scope to scrap the candidacies of the Jamaat members as they most of them were running with BNP’s polls logo paddy sheaf while the remaining as independent aspirants.

On Dec 18, the High Court told the EC to dispose of the application filed for cancelling the candidacies of 25 Jamaat members by three working days.

Four individuals moved the court challenging the eligibility of those candidates to remain there in the election race.

On the BNP’s demand for giving it either a scope to field alternative candidates or reschedule the election in the seats where the candidates of the party and alliance partners have been declared disqualified by the court, the EC secretary said they have also no legal authority to take any such step.

He said they will take action as per the court directives in this regard.