Discrepancies found in Shameem Hoque's documents

Shameem Hoque, the Awami League-nominated candidate for the Faridpur-3 (Sadar) constituency, has submitted papers to the Election Commission (EC), claiming that he renounced his citizenship of the Netherlands. However, several discrepancies were seen in the documents.

The Daily Samakal checked the documents and found that the address of the Netherlands embassy consular services, the embassy's logo, phone number, email, and website addresses were plagiarised.

Shameem Hoque's first document is signed "Declaration to Renounce Dutch Citizenship"dated 09.11.2023. However, it is addressed "To whom it may concern" and does not bear the received seal of any authority, including any competent authority of The Netherlands. 

Meanwhile, the document claims that in response to the application, the Netherlands embassy in Dhaka said to wait for instructions from the "Holland Ministry of Foreign Affairs", but such an entity does not exist. The document is not signed or stated to have been issued by a named diplomat.

Moreover, in official correspondence, the word "Holland" is not used to describe The Netherlands. The documents sent to EC show that most of the e-mail communication occurred after December 4.

It was found that most of the email communication done on behalf of Shamim Haque was carried out by a person named Ali Asgor Manik. When contacted, he said he was not an employee of the Netherlands embassy. 

Independent candidate A.K. Azad on December 8 applied to the Election Commission to cancel the candidature of Shamim Haque, Awami League-nominated candidate for the Faridpur-3 (Sadar) seat, citing that he has dual citizenship.

Later, Shamim Haque presented some documents to the EC. In light of the situation, the EC left the decision on the legality of Shamim Haque's candidacy for the upcoming national elections pending. If he is found to possess dual citizenship, he will not be eligible to participate in the polls.  

 Earlier, Azad’s lawyer Golam Kibria said, “Awami League candidate Shamim Haque is a citizen of the Netherlands. At the time of scrutinization of nomination papers, independent candidate A.K. Azad placed a written complaint to the returning officer in this regard. However, the returning officer declared Shamim Haque's nomination paper valid without cancelling it. An appeal has been filed to the Election Commission on Friday against this order of the returning officer.”

He further said, “Shamim Haque's previous passport number of Netherlands is BESHC8751, date of birth is written on 21 October 1960. Shamim Haque recently submitted an application to the Faridpur passport office to issue his Bangladeshi passport. He has marked a tick in the dual citizenship box in column no.25 of that application. In column 26, it is asked to mention the name of the country if the candidate is a citizen of another country; there he mentioned the Netherlands. Column 27 mentions his Netherlands passport number bearing BY60F0J74.”

Process of renouncing Dutch citizenship

In order to renounce Dutch citizenship, a person has to sign a declaration giving it up ('renouncing' it). From that point on, that person is no longer a Dutch citizen. Under Dutch law, he is considered a foreign citizen.

If a person is living in the Netherlands, such a declaration can be submitted via the municipality he is living under. However, a person living outside the Netherlands can do this at an embassy or consulate of the Netherlands in his country of residence.

It may be noted that the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands is responsible for dealing with renunciation. 

/KN/