Nomination papers of five mayoral and 223 councillor aspirants in the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) elections were declared valid after scrutiny.
Rajshahi regional election office has also published the affidavits submitted by the candidates. The five valid candidates are Awami League’s (AL) AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, outgoing mayor, BNP’s Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul, Jatiya Party’s Wasiur Rahman Dolon, Bangladesh Jatiya Party’s (BJP) Habibur Rahman and Islami Andolon’s Shafiqul Islam.
Candidates have placed details of assets with personal documents. As per the details, AL candidate’s income has declined while the outgoing mayor Bulbul’s income saw a rise of more than 11 times.
According to the information submitted to the Election Commission by Liton, he completed graduation and works as a legal counsel. He showed Tk. 1, 38, 43, 000 to his name in the nomination paper with the net property value standing at Tk. 2, 68, 97, 151.
In the 2013 statement, Liton showed Tk. 58, 75, 772 as annual income while he submitted Tk. 42, 45, 288 this year, a cut down of income. He also cleared Tk. 8, 58, 822 as income tax every year, shows the details. Being contacted, the AL candidate said: “everything I have is legal and the taxes are paid properly.”
In case of Bulbul’s affidavit, in 2013, Tk. 1, 92, 000 was showed as the annual income while, this year, it jumped to Tk. 21, 57, 260. The outgoing mayor mentioned the facilities plus the honorariums he was provided as a mayor for the reason of his income hike.
His net asset stands at Tk. 49, 74, 371 and he paid Tk. 3, 36, 815 as taxes every year.
The mayoral honorarium increased my income over the past years, claimed the BNP backed mayor candidate. He also said that he has no illegal assets and pays taxes regularly.
Jatiya Party nominated mayor candidate, Wasiur Rahman Dolon, a higher secondary passed, cited Tk. 2, 50, 000 as annual income Besides, Shafiqul Islam of Islami Andolon and BJP’s Habibur Rahman showed Tk. 2, 50, 000 and Tk. 4, 25, 000 respectively as yearly income. According to the schedule, the last day of withdrawal of nomination is Jul 9.
The symbol will be allocated on Jul 10.
A total of 3, 18, 138 voters will vote to elect the next mayor for the Rajshahi City Corporation, RCC, on Jul 30.