The High Court has issued a contempt of court rule against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda and four other government officials for violating its directive that asked not to publish the result of a ward under a union parishad election in Chittagong.
The four others are Election Commission Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker, Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Mominur Rahman, Rangunia's Upazila Nirbahi Officer Bayezid Alam and Presiding Officer Ratan Kumar Kanti, according to media reports.
In the rule, they were also ordered to explain in four weeks why they should not be punished for committing contempt of court by violating it the court order.
The bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman on Sunday came up with the rule after Ahmed Kabir, candidate for the post of member of Pomra union in Rangunia upazila, moved the court.
Lawyer ABM Altaf Hossain and Abul Kasem appeared for the petitioner.
Earlier, the court on December 12 last year directed the CEC to dispose of Kabir’s application alleging anomalies in the number of votes cast in Ward 2 of Pomra union for the general and reserved seats in the word.
In the application, he requested the CEC and other respondents to recount the votes.
The HC also ordered not to publish the gazette notification of the polls result of the ward until the application was disposed of.
In violation of the HC order, the EC published the gazette notification on the election result on December 23, declaring another candidate as winner in the election, said lawyer Abul Kashem.
