In the biennial election of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the country's apex trade body, a total of 1,745 votes, or 87.69% out of 1,990 votes were cast.
The poll to elect the new board of directors for the 2023-25 tenure started at 9:30 am at Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Agargaon and continued till 4:30 pm without break.
A Matin Chowdhury, chairman of the FBCCI Election Board, told the media that the election began at 9:30 am and voter presence was very poor during the morning hours.
“Most of the voters came after 11:30 am and there was a huge voter turnout after lunch. The voting continued till 4:30 pm without a break,” he added.
The election board had 14 voting booths available, and 10 booths for handing out ballots. The board added three additional booths at 2:30 pm because of the massive voter turnout through the additional booths were shut off after one hour.
There are two groups in the FBCCI – the Chamber group and the Association Group.
Usually, out of a total of 80 posts of directors, 34 (17 from the chamber group and 17 from the association group) are nominated through two directors from each group were disqualified.
Moreover, 46 are elected (23 from the chamber group and 23 from the association group).
As 34 directors have already been nominated and 23 were elected unopposed, the voting is underway for only 23 director posts, which made the election just a formality. A total of 49 candidates are fighting for these posts.
Among them, 46 candidates from the “Bebosayee Oikya Parishad'' and the “Sammilito Bebosayee Parishad” (23 from each panel) with three independent candidates.
Among 46 director posts, 23 director candidates of the Chamber group of Bebosayee Oikko Parishad and there will be no election in this group as there is no other panel against them.
However, the association group also came up with a proposal to elect directors without a vote but as most of the candidates of this group did not agree to it, the vote is finally taking place.
The number of director posts in FBCCI is 80 and 55 of them are in the hands of the Bebosayee Oikya Parishad that's why today's vote is just a formality.
Mahbubul Alam, the representative of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is contesting from the panel named Bebosayee Oikko Parishad and Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed, a representative of the Bangladesh Electrical Association, is contesting from a panel named Sammilito Baboshayee Parishad.
Elections for the posts of FBCCI president, senior vice president and six vice-presidents will be held on August 2 by the elected directors.
