FBCCI polls underway

The biennial election of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) is underway to elect the new board of directors for the 2023-25 tenure.

Voting began at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka at 9:00am and will continue until 4:00pm without any break, said A. Matin Chowdhury, chairman of the election board.

"There was no report of any untoward incident yet," he told The Daily Star around 12:30pm.

Usually, out of total 80 posts of the directors, 34 (17 from chamber group and 17 from association group) are nominated and 46 are elected (23 from chamber group and 23 from association group).

This term, the businesses are casting their votes only to elect 23 directors from the association group as the rest 23 candidates from the chamber group have been elected unopposed, according the sources at the FBCCI.

This year 16 directors from chamber group and 16 directors from association group have been nominated as two directors from each group were disqualified.

In today's election, Mahbubul Alam, the representative of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is contesting from the panel named Sammilito Oikko Parishad and Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed, a representative of the Bangladesh Electrical Association, is contesting from a panel named Sammilito Baboshayee Parishad.

As per the rules of the FBCCI, the next president will come from the chamber group, which is being led by Mahbubul Alam.

There are 2,500 voters this year.