Anti-syndicate panel leads in BAIRA elections

BAIRA Sammilita Oikya Parishad, led by its former president Mohammed Abul Basher, held a marginal lead in the elections of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) on Saturday.

Till 8:00pm, a total of 643 votes were counted.

The parishad, representing the panel of anti-syndicate in manpower export to Malaysia, was ahead with 304 votes while the alleged syndicate quarter, led by former BAIRA president Benjir Ahmed and former secretary general Md Ruhul Amin Shawpon, got 284 votes.

Former BAIRA president and Unique Group Managing Director Mohd. Noor Ali is the anti-syndicate panel’s chief coordinator.

The heated battle between the syndicate panel and the anti-syndicate quarter gave a new excitement to the election.

The third panel, led by former BAIRA senior vice-president Mohammad Faruk, bagged only 55 votes.

Earlier, as many as 969 votes were cast in the polls that started at 9:00am and continued till 4:00pm at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka.

The total number of voters was 1,042.

Law enforcement agencies, including police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), were deployed to avert any untoward incident.

A total of 182 candidates from the three separate panels were vying for the posts in the next committee.

According to the BAIRA website, the association has over 1,568 members. The general members voted to elect 27 committee members.

The new committee will lead BAIRA for two years (2022-2024).