The second election for the Director’s Guild of Television drama directors will be held on Friday.
52 candidates are participating in the election for 20 positions.
For the president’s position, Salauddin Lavlu and Syed Awlad are the candidates. SA Haq Alik, Mohammad Mustafa Kamal Raz, and SM Kamruzzaman, are competing for the general secretary position.
Surprisingly, former president of the director’s guild, Gazi Rakayet, is just competing for an executive member position.
Gazi Rakayet clarified the reason for this move to Bangla Tribune. He said, “I have been leading this organization for the last 16-17 years. I have no specific desire to be president anymore. I have served as the president for quite some time. I want new leadership in this organization. However, there needs to be someone to help direct the new leaders in the right direction. Therefore I participated just as an executive member. Even last time I did not want to be president. I have no hard feelings or anything like that regarding this move.
Regarding the previous election Gazi Rakayet said, “Last time I recommended Salauddin Lavlu to be the president. He said he was not ready. But Zahid Hasan also declared candidacy for the same position. Please note that the work goes to the one who deserves it most. The Director’s Guild is made of directors, by the directors, and for the directors. Zahid Hasan is mainly an actor. So I also had to declare my competing candidacy for the role of president. This time director Lavlu is a candidate. I am happy. Even if it is just for guidance, I may remain in the committee. That is why I participated in this election.”
For the position of vice president the candidates are Chayanika Chowdhury, Shokal Ahmed, Kochi Khandaker, Albert Khan, Jamaluddin Jamal, Shahid Raihan, and Badrul Anam Soud. For the position of joint general secretary the candidates are Hridi Haq, Faridul Hasan, Noman Robin, and Hamed Hasan Noman, and for the position of finance secretary, the candidates are Feroz Khan and Sazzad Hossain Sunny. For the position of organizational secretary the candidates are directors Tuhin Hossain, Riazul Rizu, and Deen Mohammad Montu. The candidates for public relations secretary are Foyez Ahmed Reza and Rakibul Hasan Chowdhury.
Aside from Gazi Rakayet, there are 29 other candidates for executive member position. They are Razu Alim, Shihab Shahin, Ahsan Habib Shakil, Mahmud Didar, Saif Chandan, Shohid-un-Nabi, Shahzada Mamun, Shakhawat Manik, S M Masud Karim, Ferari Amit, Maruf Mithu, Joseph Marshall Gomez, Saifuddin Ahmed, MHM Muntasir Ripon, Rasheda Akhter Lajuk, Sheikh Runa, Tarek Mohammad Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman Sumon, Ikram Parvez, Mohammad Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, Mohammad Saidur Rahman Arif, Mukti Mahmud, Arif A Ahnaf, Priti Dutta, GM Sazzad Hossain, Zahir Khan and Kazi Shohag.
The election is to take place on September 28 and the directors are meeting regularly in Moghbazar, Niketon, and the Shilpakala Academy. The candidates are declaring their mandates and the election committee hopes this election will run smoothly, just as it did last time.
The chief election commissioner for this election is film personality Amzad Hossain. TV personality Mamunur Rashid and actor-choreographer SM Mosin are serving as commissioners.
The director’s guild was founded in 2002 with much fanfare, to ensure the rights of television drama directors. By a selection process since inception, the executive committee was formed three times, but the organization was inactive for the last 14 years.
To break the absence of activity, on July 22, 2016, the first election was held. Since that election, Gazi Rakayet has served as president for two years, and SA Haq Alik served as general secretary. The Gazi-Alik guild has been very active for the last two years. Even if there was some criticism and controversy, the previous committee was lauded for taking many noticeable decisions, meteing out necessary disciplinary punishment, providing required assistance, and trying to bring back discipline to the organization.
