Dhaka: Bangladesh's parliamentary speaker Jamiruddin Sircar today apologised to the Election Commission for violating the electoral code of conduct for the landmark general elections next week.

The election panel had recently warned Sircar, amid reports that he was exploiting his official privileges while campaigning as a candidate of ex-Premier Khaleda Zia's BNP party, along with 12 other nominees of major outfits and independent contestants for violating the electoral code.

Election officials in a written letter to the commission said that Sircar has admitted he had breached the code by pasting posters on walls and trees, which is for the first time banned under the revised Representation of People Order (RPO) as part of electoral reforms.

Sircar, however, denied the allegation that he exploited his official privileges as the parliamentary speaker in his poll campaign, raised by rival candidates of his constituency in northwestern Panchagarh.

Newspapers recently published a photograph where two parliamentary guards in uniform, supposed to stand behind the speaker's chair when the House is in session, were found standing on two corners of the podium of Sircar's poll rally in Panchagargh on Sunday.

Sircar said as being third most important person of the country, he gets the officials privileges as per protocol for his own security.
Source : PTI