Dhaka: Shocked at the news of his nomination paper cancellation, a municipality mayor aspirant Juba League leader has died of cardiac arrest.

The mayoral aspirant, Enamul Haque, was a rebel Awami League candidate for the mayoral post of Tangail’s Gopalpur municipality. He was the Gopalpur upazila Juba League join secretary. He decided to run in the elections as an independent after Awami League turned down his request for the candidacy.

Police said Enamul fell sick at about 5:00pm on Saturday while returning home after the local election commission office had cancelled his nomination papers due to an inconsistency in the public signature paper that, according to the new municipality law, independent candidates must submit to prove their public support.

Later he died of cardiac arrest after had been taken to Upazila Health Complex, said Gopalpur police officer-in-charge Zahirul Islam.

Queried about the said inconsistency in Enamul’s paper, the upazila’s election officer Shamsul Huda said that during the scrutiny of papers submitted by him it was found that one of the signatures of the required 100 signatures was fake. Instead of the mentioned person, the signatory was his mother, Shamsul Huda added.

Earlier an Awami League backed mayoral candidate of Rajshahi’s Arani municipality died reportedly of excessive alcohol consumption.

Elections to 234 municipalities across the country are scheduled to be held on 30 December with for the first time mayor candidates being nominated by the political parties.