Nominations of top 31 businesspeople in the country, who wanted to compete in the election for the board of directors of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), were cancelled due to tax and/or loan defaults.
The election board of FBCCI canceled or postponed the nomination of a total 34 businesspeople due to tax or loan defaults and other reasons based on the information provided by Bangladesh Bank and National Board of Revenue (NBR).
FBCCI election board chairman A Matin Chowdhury, and members KMN Manjurul Haque and Md Shamsul Alam signed the list mentioning the names of 34 businesspeople where the nominations of 32 have been cancelled primarily.
However, later, from the list of 32, cancellation order of one candidate was voided thanks to the clearance letter of the NBR.
According to the letter, former DCCI President Abul Kashem Khan, potential candidate of the Chamber Group for the post of director was not a tax defaulter, given his regular taxpaying status belonging to Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU).
The Election Board of FBCCI on Tuesday released the list of 105 valid candidates for the election of the Federation's Board of Directors in 2023-25.
Nominations of a total of 22 candidates from the association group have been cancelled, of them, six businesspeople were nominated for the next committee from the group.
Moreover, the nominations of both two deferred candidates were also from the Association Group and the board will take decision on the two persons after getting clarification from NBR regarding the status of tax payment.
The heavyweight businesses whose candidacy have been cancelled are Md Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Khandaker Ruhul Amin, KM Akhtaruzzaman, Md Shafiqul Islam Vorosha, Md Habib Ullah Dawn, Sayed Sadat Almas Kabir, Mohammed Abul Basher, Nizamuddin Rajesh, Md Abul Hossain, Mohammad Khorshed Alam, Mohammad Monsur, Shahab Uddin Khan, Md Abul Hashem, Serajul Islam, Md Rakibul Alam, Salama Hossain Ash, Md Jakir Hossain, Taher Ahmed Siddiqui, and Khondakar Enayet Ullah from the association group.
Moreover, the nomination of Fazlee Shamim Ehsan has been disallowed as his signature did not match with his specimen signature given in the voter form where Mousumi Islam's nomination was cancelled as her voter number in nomination form was penned through.
Mohammad Anwar Hossain's nomination was rejected as his name and voter number of the proposer in the nomination form was penned through.
The 9 candidates from the chamber group who lost their nominations are Hasina Newaaz, Mohammad Nizam Uddin, Md Ali Hossain (Shishir), Md Shah Jalal, Mohammad Riyadh Ali, Mohammad Fayazur Rahman Bhuiyan, Mohabbat Ullah, Samiul Haque Safa, and Sujib Ranjan Dash.
However, everyone can apply to the election board to get back the candidature.
The Election Appeal Board will hear and decide appeals against the cancellation of nominations for the post of directors between July 12 and July 14, according to the FBCCI's election schedule notification.
On July 15, the final list of eligible candidates will be published and the deadline for withdrawing a candidacy has been set on July 18.
On July 31, the election will take place nonstop from 9 am to 4 pm. Following the election, the names of the elected directors will be declared.
The president, senior vice-president, and six vice-presidents will be chosen by the elected board of directors on August 2.
Any candidate may appeal against the result of the election of directors and office bearers on August 4 to the Election Appeal Board.
The final result will be published on August 7.
