Elected uncontested, 78 FBCCI directors named
The election board of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) yesterday declared the names of 78 directors who were elected uncontested.
The 78 directors will represent the country's business community for another two-year term.
This is yet another showcase of the absence of participatory elections at the country's apex trade body.
The leaders of the FBCCI have been chosen either through partial election or were selected on the basis of consensus among the potential candidates, said a former presidential hopeful and many former directors earlier.
Fake voters and political pressure exerted by the voters backed by ruling celebrations mainly dominated the election over the last couple of years, they said, all on condition of anonymity.
It has been going on going back six years, depriving the voters of the possibility to choose their leaders through participatory elections.
"According to our election scheduled, we've declared the titles of the 78 directors formally," said Shamsul Alam, an associate of the election board.
Now, the directors might elect the president and vice-presidents for the 2021-23 tenure.
Md Jasim Uddin, chairman of recently launched private loan company Bengal Commercial Bank, is scheduled to end up being elected president as none is contesting him.
The FBCCI election for the 2021-23 tenure was scheduled to be held yesterday. On the other hand, the election was cancelled as four directors, two each from chamber and association teams, withdrew their candidature last week. After the withdrawal of the nomination papers by the four hopefuls, the posts of 23 directors from each of the chamber and association groupings were chock-full automatically. Subsequently, the election did not take place.
The directors are scheduled to elect the president and the vice-presidents on May 7.
This time around, the president will be named from the association group and senior vice-president from the chamber group.
Six more vice-presidents should come from the association and chamber teams.
The total number of posts of directors at the FBCCI is 80. Of it, 46 are elected - 23 from the chamber group and 23 from the association group.
Another 34 directors are nominated -- 17 from the chamber group and 17 from the association group.
However, this period the total amount of directors is 78 since the Gopalganj Chamber of Commerce and Sector and the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Firms did not nominate directors.
