Sajed-Munir boycott hockey election

Bangladesh Hockey Federation election takes a new twist after the Sajed-Munir panel decided to boycott the election as a protest against threats to their councilors and also for not cancelling the nominations of the five National Sports Council (NSC) councilors. The Mohammedan supported panel announced their decision at an official press conference at the Mohammedan Sporting Club yesterday. The panel’s withdrawal from the election, scheduled to be held on June 27, meant Khwaja Rahmatullah will retain his general secretary post without any challenge. The candidates submitted their nomination forms on June 15 and the last date of withdrawal was yesterday. The Mohammedan supported panel withdrew all 26 nomination forms. Shafiullah al Munir, who withdrew his nomination for the post of the general secretary, said retaining all five names of NSC nominated councilors in the final voter list, the political interruptions in the election, absence of level playing ground and involvement of a suspicious councilor in the hockey activity are the reasons they opted out for.  He also added they decided not to take part in any hockey activities under that committee. “We requested to the president with a written application to change the five names of NSC nominated councilors from the voter list and we waited till noon (Wednesday), but didn’t get any reply from the president. So, despite having supports from enough councilors, our decision to boycott election is a protest. A protest against unethical, illegal and out-of-rule activities regarding hockey election of one or two peoples under political shelters,” said Munir yesterday. He also claimed that they have supports of 44 councilors out of 71. Along with Mohammedan, Wari Club, Bangladesh Sporting Club, Mariners Young’s Club, Dhaka Wonderers representatives were also present during the press conference and gave their support to the Sajed-Munir panel. No representative from Ajax Club was present, but it was learnt that they are also supporting the panel. Few days back the six clubs held another press conference in which they gave a 24-hour ultimatum for changing the names of five NSC councilors who are all from Abahani. “They (opponents) are trying to take our councilors to their side under political influence. Our ally councilors are facing many problems including threats and other pressures from different quarters,” added Munir. Mohammedan’s director in-charge Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan said they were forced to take the decision. “We didn’t know we had to face such conspiracy. We are forced to take the step.” Meanwhile, on the last day of withdrawing nomination forms, nine candidates from Sadek-Rahmatullah panel withdrew their nomination. They are - Mahabub Harun, Ismail Babul, Sohrab Hossain, Mahmudul Islam, Romana Ali, Asiful Hasan, Nazrul Islam, Mohammad Yusuf and Jummon Lusai. Earlier, a total of 63 nominations were submitted by the rival panels with 37 nominations belonging to Rahmatullah’s panel and 26 supporting Sajed Adel and Shafiullah al Munir.