BCB election today

Councillors and representatives of clubs, education boards and services will cast their vote today to select the guardians of Bangladesh Cricket for the next four years as the election of the Bangladesh Cricket Board Executive Committee takes place today at the BCB office inside the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

A total of 174 voters are entitled to vote in different categories to elect directors from their segment but as Barishal Educational Board, Agrani Bank and the University of Dhaka did not nominate any representatives, the number of voters came down to 171.

But In category 1, which includes the representatives of regional and district cricket associations; Akram Khan, AJM Nasir Uddin, Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, Sheikh Sohel, Kazi Inam Ahmed and Alamgir Khan has already come out as winners as there was no opposition from their locality which also reduced the number of voters.

The election will be held among the candidates of the Dhaka division, where four are contesting for the post of two BCB directors. Representatives from the 17 DSAs of the Dhaka division and one from the Dhaka divisional sports association will cast their vote to elect two directors out of four candidates. Khalid Hossain stepped down from the election, but his name will be on the ballot paper as he declared his withdrawal after the designated date. This means, 18 voters will cast their votes to choose two directors out of three aspirants from Dhaka Division.

Voting will also take place in the Rajshahi division, where former captain Khaled Mashud will be facing Md Saiful Alam Swapon Chowdhury, a director in the previous term. Mashud was nominated by the divisional sports association of Rajshahi, while Swapon Chowdhury was nominated by Pabna DSA. A total of eight voters will cast their votes to elect one director from their region.

Category 2 is formed by the representatives from the clubs of the Dhaka Metropolitan, which includes Premier division, first division, second division and super league clubs from the third division.

In this category, there are posts of 12 directors where 16 aspirants are seeking votes from the councillors to be a part of the countries cricket administration’s highest level. Present BCB President Nazmul Hasan is running for his third term representing Abahani Limited.

A total of 57 club representatives will cast their votes to elect 12 directors out of 17 aspirants for the next four years.

The BCB president, who lost his father-in-law on Monday evening but yet attended a dinner with the councillors at a city hotel that night, said, “There is no panel. We all are together as one unit. I want new ideas, that’s why I would like to see some new faces who will come up with fresh ideas. I would like to see a fair, festive, inclusive election.”

All eyes will be locked into the election of director from category 3 where Khaled Mahmud Sujan is contesting against Nazmul Abedeen Fahim.

Former cricketers, National Sports Council nominated representatives, Bangladesh Olympic Association officials, former cricketers, former captains and representatives from educational boards and universities will cast their vote in this category to elect either Khaled or Nazmul. 43 voters will cast their votes to elect one director from category 3, where Mahmud and Fahim are contesting.

Presiding officer S M Kabirul Islam told the media that there will be only one voting booth as only 70 voters will appear physically to cast their votes.

“As a few of the candidates are elected unopposed, not every voter need to cast their vote. There are 127 voters, and among them, 57 will cast their votes through e-mail or postal ballots. Only 70 will turn up physically,” he said on Tuesday after seeing the preparations for the election.

This is the first time the BCB election commission has introduced the postal ballot or e-ballot due to the pandemic situation. The election commission has already sent the ballots to the interested councillors. The reply must reach the election commission by 5 PM today. Otherwise, that vote will be lost, said SM Kabirur Islam.

The voting will start from 10 AM and will continue till 5 PM. After that, the primary results will be declared.