73 to contest FBCCI polls

Seventy-three business leaders have submitted their nomination papers to contest the forthcoming election to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) for the next two-year term (2007-09).
The FBCCI Election Board received nomination papers both from the Association Group and the Chamber Group as the deadline for submission of nomination papers expired yesterday, said a FBCCI Election Board official.
Of them, 12 from each group will be elected as directors through voting on March 17.
Meanwhile, seven selected trade associations and seven selected chambers nominated their representatives directly to become directors of the apex trade body. They have also submitted their nomination papers.
The 38 elected and nominated directors will choose their president, first vice-president and vice president through an election to be held at 4pm on March 19.
The scrutiny of the nomination papers would continue until February 12 while the final list of qualified candidates would be published the following day.
The FBCCI election had been stalled over a membership dispute of a FBCCI member-body, BGMEA, prompting the Ministry of Commerce, the regulatory authority, to extend the tenure of the Mir Nasir Hossain-led Board of Directors up to December 6, 2007.
However, they could not hold the election in the extended period due to a court order over the membership dispute.
The Nasir committee took over charge of the apex trade body on September 5, 2005 for a two-year term until September 5, 2007.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce on December 6 appointed Syed Manzur Elahi as administrator of the apex trade body with the main assignment to conduct the election in his three-month tenure.
Manzur took over charge of the federation chamber on December 8 with the assurance that he would facilitate the election as early as possible.
On the same day, the dispute over membership got settled in the court, paving the way for holding the election.
The FBCCI Election Board announced the fresh election schedule on January 13.