Shishir Monir announces to fight in court against writ seeking to suspend the validity of the referendum results

Shishir Monir, a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, has announced to fight in court challenging the writ petition filed to suspend the validity of the referendum results. In a post on his verified Facebook page on Tuesday (February 17), he said that the writ case will be fought in court. He said, "We will fight the writ case filed seeking a ban on the validity of the referendum results in the court, InshaAllah."

Earlier, a writ was filed in the High Court challenging the validity of the referendum held on February 12 and seeking to cancel the results announced on February 13. On Tuesday, Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer ABM Ataul Majid Touhid filed the writ petition in public interest. The Chief Election Commissioner, Cabinet Secretary and Law Secretary have been made respondents in the writ.

It is learned that the petition may be heard in a High Court bench headed by Justice Fatema Najeeb next week.

It is worth noting that the 'yes' vote for the change won in the nationwide referendum held on February 12. The total voter turnout was 60.26 percent. Akhtar Ahmed, Senior Secretary of the EC Secretariat, announced the results at a briefing held at the Election Commission Building in Agargaon in the capital on February 13. He said that 48 million 74 thousand 429 voters voted 'yes' for the change in the referendum and 22 million 25 lakh 65 thousand 627 people voted 'no' against it.