Dhaka: The Bangladesh Bank has identified nearly 89 among the 2,139 candidates for the December 29 general elections as bank "loan defaulters" and is also cross-checking records of more suspected non-payers, officials said today.
"Nine teams of the central bank are checking the number of defaulters from among the aspirants while a process was underway to find more suspected defaulters," a Bangladesh Bank spokesman said.
According to sources, at least 40 candidates, meanwhile, moved the High Court for stay orders as the process was underway to debar them from contesting polls under the election laws.
"The central bank could do nothing if the High Court clears them for the polls but we have asked our concerned officials and other commercial banks to put in their best efforts in the legal battle to vacate the HC stay orders as early as possible," the spokesman said.
The bank disclosure came two days after the High Court in a landmark judgment declared the graft convicts, who were tried under Emergency Power Rules (EPR) and sentenced to not less than a two-year term, disqualified for vying parliamentary polls.
