EC validates nomination of Oikya Front’s Reza Kibria

Jayita Oikya Front leader Reza Kibria will now contest the Dec 30 polls. The returning officer had rejected it based on a pending credit card bill. He has been cleared to contest the 11th general elections from Habiganj 1 constituency.

Reza Kibria appealed the decision with the Election Commission. The commission then approved the nomination of the candidate from the Kamal Hossain-led Gono Forum.

Reza Kibria told reporters after the hearing that he had been accused of having unpaid credit card debt, but that he had never used a credit card and so had no dues.

Reza Kibria’s father Shah AMS Kibria had served as Sheikh Hasina’s finance minister from 1996 to 2001. The former UN official became a topic of discussion after he declared that he would join the Gono Forum and its Oikya Front alliance with the BNP.

Reza Kibria's father had been elected as the MP from the Habiganj-1 seat in 2001 and was killed in a grenade attack in Habiganj in 2005.