Highlights
- Nurul Khan also claimed that the Labor Party withdrew its support after taking cognizance of the allegations leveled against him
- Nurul Khan's candidacy is still alive despite the Labor Party withdrawing its support
- Golam Haque is another Bangladeshi-origin candidate in the same constituency for the Liberal party
Bangladeshi Australian Nurul Khan has been a candidate for the Western Metropolitan seat in the Upper House or Legislative Council in the state election in Victoria scheduled to be held on November 26. He was initially nominated by the Australian Labor Party. But the Labor Party later withdrew its support.
Regarding this matter, Mr. Khan said that recently some complaints were made against him anonymously and using pseudonyms. Due to these circumstances, the Labor Party decided to retract its backing.
“... it has been confirmed, via an email of the 12th, that I am dis-endorsed by Labour, but my candidature is still valid, because it is still there.”
Nurul Khan also claimed that the Labor Party withdrew its support after taking cognizance of the allegations leveled against him. However, they did not take any initiative to ascertain the truth of these allegations, he said.
Has any specific reason for withdrawing the support of the Labor Party been mentioned in this context? Khan said, although the last letter did not mention the reason, an earlier letter mentioned this anonymous letter.
“The last letter which dis-endorsed me did not mention any reason, before that they gave me a letter which said several allegations, from an email id, and they know that they admitted that it is fake. So, there they say that these are allegations.”
Labor Party withdraws support from Bangladeshi-origin Nurul Khan's candidacy. Credit: Nurul Khan/ Facebook
“And to them I said, do you have other proof - no. And I also asked, did you contact any one of the listed persons - no. So, under what basis are you asking me to withdraw? Then they told me that may be all false, but for the interest of the party, that we request you to withdraw, initially the conversation was that, so I said that no, you gave me unfair, unfounded reasons - If you ask me to do something on that ground, I am not going to do that, I am not going to withdraw, there must be a reasonable basis.”
“Let’s say, tomorrow I can send ten emails against a parliament member candidate like this. Are you going to tell them to withdraw? Then they (Labor Party) said, oh, it depends.”
Nurul Khan's candidacy is still alive despite the Labor Party withdrawing its support.
“... there is no option to withdraw from the election now. What they had; it was till noon on 10th (November 2022) is the time to withdraw the nomination. So, when I did not, they could not say what to say to cancel my nomination. They can dis-endorse me. So, I am dis-endorsed, my name is written on the ballot paper, Australian Labor Party. Very confusing for the voter. So, I have nothing to withdraw, it will stay that way, but I am not in a labor party anymore."
Mr. Khan said, if he wins, he will work as an independent.
“Suppose if I win, I will be treated as an independent candidate if I get voted.”
He also said that the ballot paper had already been printed and his name was written on it as Labor Party, even though he had resigned as a member of the Labor Party.
In this context, Mr. Khan said, I am no longer interested in any matter of this party, because there is no 'protection' for me from the Labor Party as a member.
"It's not just an injustice to me, it's an injustice to the community," he said.
“I do not want to go further into the party anymore, due to the under realization as a member I have no 'protection' in the Labor Party. After the news was published yesterday, it was based on community emails, so I resigned from the party.”
Mr. Khan also said, “I resigned as protest, yes, it’s a protest for injustice, and to me it is injustice to my whole community as well.”
Regarding the allegations leveled against him Mr. Nurul Khan claimed, these allegations are baseless, nothing but a conspiracy against me. I am a victim of dirty politics.
"Anyone can make such a fabricated complaint by writing an anonymous letter. But the party dis-endorsed me without any evidence.”
"The names of the people mentioned in the letter who are said to be aware of the allegations against me, have not been given permission to use their names," Mr. Khan claimed.
In this regard, the Victoria branch of the Labor Party has been contacted several times by phone and email, but no response has been received till the time of writing this report.
There are four other Labor Party candidates in the Western Metropolitan seat, but no other candidates have been fielded to replace Nurul Khan.
Other Upper House candidates for Western Metropolitan Region seats include Lizzie Blandthorne, Ingrid Stitt, Cesar Melhem, Cuc Lam from the Labor Party; Moira Deeming, Truong Luu, Golam Haque, Manish Patel, and Luan Walker from the Liberal Party.
To listen to the whole conversation click the audio player above.
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