The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) elections to elect new directors ended on Saturday, the first time since the interim government took office in August last year.
The Forum panel won 31 out of the 35 director posts, the Sammilita Parishad won four posts, while the Oikya Parishad could not win a single post.
Although the Forum and the Sammilita Parishad fielded candidates for all the posts in Dhaka and Chittagong, the Oikya Parishad had six candidates. As a result, there were 76 candidates in total.
The Forum’s panel team leader in the election is Mahmud Hasan Khan, Managing Director (MD) of Rising Fashions. And the Sammilita Parishad team was led by Md Abul Kalam, MD of Chaiti Group. The Oikya Parishad team leader is Mohammad Mohsin, chairman of Romo Fashion Today.
In the Dhaka region, the Forum’s party leader, Mahmud Hasan Khan, received the highest number of votes, 1,149. And in Chittagong, the Forum’s Selim Rahman received the highest number of votes.
There were 1,864 voters in this election. Of these, 1,561 were in Dhaka and 303 in Chittagong. Of them, 87.5% of the voters voted.
Voting began simultaneously at 8am on Saturday at the Radisson Blue Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka and the Radisson Blue Hotel Bay View in Chittagong amid tight security.
The counting of votes ended around 11pm on Saturday. Mohammad Iqbal served as the chairman of the election board. The other two members of the board are Syed Afzal Hossain and Ashraf Ahmed.
According to the election schedule, the election process for the posts of president and vice-president will begin on June 11. The new board is scheduled to take office on June 16.
The BGMEA elections were held in March last year. Although Sammilita Parishad won all the posts, the election was questionable. SM Mannan, the general secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan North Awami League, became the president at that time.
After the political change on August 5, he was not seen again. Multiple murder cases were filed against him. On October 20, the Ministry of Commerce dissolved the BGMEA board of directors and appointed an administrator on various charges.
The forum candidates won 25 of the 26 posts in the Dhaka region of BGMEA. They are Mahmud Hasan Khan, Shah Raed Chowdhury, Mizanur Rahman, MA Rahim, Faisal Samad, Mohammad Abdus Salam, Kazi Mizanur Rahman, Md Shihab Uddoza Chowdhury, Inamul Haque Khan, Md Hasib Uddin, Mohammad Sohel, Sheikh HM Mostafiz, Vidya Amrit Khan, Joaddar Mohammad Hosne Qamar Alam, ABM Shamsuddin, Nafis-ud-Daula, Sumaiya Islam, Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, Majumder Arifur Rahman, Fahima Akhter, Asef Kamal Pasha, Rashid Ahmed Hossaini, Rumana Rashid, Samiha Azim and Rezwan Selim.
Farooq Hasan of Sammilita Parishad won one post in Dhaka.
On the other hand, the Forum candidates won six out of nine posts in the Chittagong region. They are Selim Rahman, M Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Sakif Ahmed Salam, Md. Sharif Ullah, Mohammad Rafiq Chowdhury and Enamul Aziz Chowdhury. The remaining three posts were won by Sammilita Parishad members Syed Mohammad Tanvir, SM Taib and Rakibul Alam Chowdhury.
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