Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Sammilita Parishad-Forum panel led by Rubana Huq, Managing Director of Mohammadi Group and wife of former Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq, has swept the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) polls by bagging all the director posts of the trade body.
Election to the trade body took place simultaneously in BGMEA’s Dhaka and Chattogram offices from 8am to 4pm on Saturday to elect new leaders of the apparel industry, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the country’s total exports. “The polls were held peacefully. Around 76 per cent of voters cast their votes,” Barrister Nihad Kabir, a member of the election board, told The New Nation.
She said, out of total of 1,955 registered voters, some 1,492 exercised their franchise on Saturday’s election.
After overnight vote counting, Barrister Nihad Kabir announced the unofficial results around 9.20pm.
The elected directors will now select a president and four vice-presidents to administer the BGMEA for the next two years.
Generally, leader of the winning panel is elected as the BGMEA chief. So, Rubana Huq looks certain to lead the BGMEA as its next President. The board of director of BGMEA comprised 35 directors, of which nine from the Chittagong zone have already been elected unopposed.
A total of 44 candidates contested for the director posts of the BGMEA.
Of them, 26 were from Sammilita Parishad-Forum panel, 18 from Shadhinata Parishad.
The election results, however, shocked the other panel–Shadhinata Parishad-led by Md Jahangir Alam, Managing Director of Design and Source Limited, as it failed to secure even a single director post.
The current board under the leadership of its president, Md Siddiqur Rahman, also assumed office on September 22, 2015 for a two-year term through a negotiation process with the rival panel.
As per the negotiation, Siddiqur-led Sammilita Parishad holds 19 posts of directorship and Forum 16 posts.
Although the tenure of the board was two years, the incumbents remain in office for more than three and a half years as the government extended their tenure thrice.
During the negotiation in 2015, both Sammilita Parishad and Forum agreed in principle that Forum would get the post of president of the trade body for the next tenure.
