A health officer is running as an independent from the Chittagong-4 constituency in the upcoming parliamentary election; he is accused of hiding his status as a professional on the nomination form.

Md. Salauddin, a health assistant at the Sitakunda Upazila Health Complex, is the accused official.

Rather than noting his work in government service, he listed "business" as his profession on his nomination document.

Sources claim that the Election Commission and the relevant returning officer rejected his nomination document due to alleged "fraudulence" in gathering signatures from one percent of the electorate. He later regained his candidacy by filing a legal appeal.

Salahuddin has been employed as a health assistant at the medical facility for several years, according to Dr. Nur Uddin Rashed, the Sitakunda Health and Family Welfare Officer.

Without notifying higher authorities, he gathered the nomination documents for the Chattogram-4 constituency as an independent candidate.

Dr. Nur Uddin stated, "A show cause letter was sent to him on November 11 when we found out, but he did not respond."

He continued, "I then sent him two and three show cause letters on December 18 and 25, but he still did not respond."

Dr. Nur Uddin added, "I also notified the returning officer, the divisional commissioner, and the civil surgeon of Chattogram about the situation."

In addition, he filed a formal complaint to take action against Salahuddin for his election participation to all relevant authorities, including the secretary of the Election Commission, the director general of the Health Department, and the UNO.

Assistant Returning Officer and Sitakunda UNO, KM Rafiqul Islam, responded that he had not yet received a copy of the formal complaint when questioned. He said that after receiving the complaint, he will notify the returning officer and the Election Commission so they may take appropriate action.

According to Chattogram's civil surgeon, Dr. Ilias Chowdhury, they formally reported the situation to the EC and requested that Salahuddin be punished by the law.

When questioned, Salahuddin stated that he began campaigning on Monday after being given the "rocket" electoral emblem. But he ended the call when questioned about the matter of hiding his status as a health official.