The voting of the biennial election of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) was held peacefully on Saturday.
The election began at 10am and ended at 5am in Dhaka and Chattogram with a one-hour recess, said Jahangir Alamin, chairman of the board of the BGMEA election for 2024-26 tenure, at a press conference.
He said that 89 per cent of votes were cast in this year's election, which was held in a free and fair environment.
Some 2,235 out of a total of 2,494 voters cast their votes at the polling centres in Dhaka and Chattogram.
Of those, some 1,848 out of 2,032 votes were cast at the Dhaka centre, posting a 90.5 per cent turnout. Meanwhile, 387 out of 462 votes were cast at the Chattogram polling centre, posting an 83.4 per cent turnout.
It may take two to three hours to finish the electronic counting of the votes, said Jahangir, a former president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association.
He said the voting was peaceful and no untoward incident took place during the election.
The vote counting was still on until the filing of this report at 9:40pm on Saturday.
Two panels — Sammilita Parishad and Forum — contested the election. SM Mannan is the panel leader of the Sammilita Parishad and Faisal Samad is the panel leader of the Forum.
A total of 70 candidates vied for 35 director posts under the two panels. Of the 35 directors, 26 will be picked up from Dhaka while nine will be elected from the Chattogram region.
On December 4 last year, the BGMEA board of directors formed a three-member election board headed by Jahangir.
It also formed a three-member election appellate board, headed by Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Kamran T Rahman.
The voters in Dhaka cast their ballots in booths installed at the BGMEA office at Uttara, while the voters in Chattogram cast votes at the trade body's regional office in the port city.
