Kazi Salahuddin has been re-elected as the president of Bangladesh Football Federation for the fourth consecutive time after winning by more than 50 votes at the BFF Elective Congress 2020 in Dhaka Saturday.
Abdus Salam Murshedy and Kazi Nabil Ahmed were also re-elected as senior vice-president and vice-president respectively for the fourth straight time as Salahuddin-led Sammilito Parishad, or combined panel, dominated the overall poll results with distinct margin.
Other two vice-president candidates from the combined panel, Imrul Hasan and Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan Manik made their debut in the election, and got elected as vice-presidents.
Only Amirul Islam Babu, former BFF member, from the combined panel couldn’t make it.
There will be re-election for the other vice-president post after last-term’s VPs Tabith Awal and Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohi tied with 65 votes each.
Tabith is independent candidate while Mohi contested under the Samannay Parishad panel.
A total of 135 councilors out of 139 cast their votes to elect the new 21-member committee slated to run the federation next four years.
The 21-member committee comprises the president, a senior vice-president, four vice-presidents and 15 executive members.
Kazi Nabil Ahmed won his fourth term as BFF vice president Dhaka Tribune/Md ManikThe election vibe started from the morning as Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon turned into festive mood amid the presence of delegates, councilors, candidates, their supporters and many more.
After a two-hour long Annual General Meeting held without any chaos, the wait was only for voting to start, which also took place spontaneously and completed within shorter time compared to before.
The councilors and delegates made satisfactory remarks after casting their votes.
Abahani Limited and Square Group director Anjan Chowdhury Pintu, also a councilor of BFF as Pabna District Football Association general secretary, said, “I hope the celebratory atmosphere that is prevailing right now will also continue after the elections.”
Only four councilors – delegates of Lt. Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited (Safwan Sobhan, president), Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra (Mohammad Maksudur Rahman, director), Chittagong Abahani Ltd (Tarafder Mohammad Ruhul Amin, senior vice-chairman) and Faridpur DFA (Nazmul Islam Khandaker, president) – didn’t cast votes.
It took around one and a half hours to complete the voting process of 135 councilors.
There was a little chaos at the start of the voting count as independent presidential candidate Shafiqul Islam Manik complained, “I have no agents or representatives who will be present during the vote counting so I wanted to be there myself but they asked me to leave the place.”
The counting of president and senior vice-president votes was held first.
Imrul Hasan displays the victory sign after being elected BFF vice president for the very first time Dhaka Tribune/Md Manik
Favorite Salahuddin won as many as 94 votes to beat Badol Roy (40 votes) who withdrew from election but his name appeared in the ballot paper.
Badol hinted of a comeback but eventually didn’t appear in the election venue due to health issues.
Other independent president candidate Manik got only single vote.
Murshedy, the unopposed candidate last time, defeated Sheikh Mohammad Aslam, senior vice-president candidate of Samannay panel, by 48 votes.
He won 91 votes while Aslam, three-time BFF executive member, got 44.
Salahuddin, Salam and Nabil are the leading trio of BFF in the last 12 years.
Nabil, who won highest number of votes in the 2016 election, also strolled toward another easy victory with 81 votes.
“Very pleased to be elected alongside Salahuddin and Murshedy again. The way we worked for football before will be continued in future. The target is to carry on the national team’s improvement in coming years,” said Nabil, the national team management committee chairman for the last eight years.
Salahuddin and re-elected senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy exchange well wishes BFF
Much like in the domestic arena for Bashundhara Kings, the club’s president Imrul Hasan also made a stunning debut in the BFF election by winning highest 89 votes.
He reacted, “Very happy. I want to thank the delegates for keeping faith in me. My target is to work for the district and divisional football as well as the age-group teams.”
Ataur, the vice-president of Bangladesh Volleyball Federation and Arambagh Football Academy, also made a surprising debut with 75 votes, 10 more than joint-fourth Tabith and Mohi.
Police FC President Sheikh Mohammad Maruf Hasan went close to the duo with 61 votes.
“There was spontaneous participation in the election. All eight vice-president candidates are competent. I’m seeking everyone’s support from both the panels during the re-election,” said Tabith, who will go for re-election against Mohi on October 31.
The counting of executive member votes was not finished when this report was filed.
A total of 34 candidates were vying for 15 member posts of the federation.
The election was previously scheduled for April 20 before being deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.