Voting in the much-hyped election of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is underway at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
The polling that started at 2:30pm will continue till 6:00pm without any break on Saturday.
Earlier, a two-hour congress was held from 11:00am to 01:00pm at the same venue.
A total of 139 councillors from the federation’s affiliated associations will exercise their franchise to form the 21-member BFF executive committee including president, senior vice-president, four vice presidents and fifteen members.
The 3-member election commission, headed by Mezbah Uddin Ahmed, is conducting the polls. Other two members of BFF EC are Mahfuzur Rahman Siddique and Motahar Uddin Saju.
This year, the election was expected to be held on April 20, but the federation postponed the polls due to the pandemic COVID-19 outbreak.
The governing body of world football FIFA had also permitted BFF to postpone the election until the situation became normal.
The BFF EC announced the schedule on September 3. According to the fresh schedule, a total of 49 nomination papers -- three for president, two for senior vice-president, eight for vice-presidents and 36 for executive committee members -- were sold in three days of nomination distribution from September 5 to 7.
Aspiring candidates for the president, senior vice president and vice president and members bought nomination papers by paying Tk 1 lakh, Tk 75,000 , Tk 50,000 thousand and Tk 25,000 respectively. Candidates submitted nomination papers on September 8 while BFF Election Commission scrutinised all submitted nomination papers on September 11.
Two candidates namely Saidur Rahman Manik and Zakir Hossain Babul withdrew their candidacy on the last date of candidate withdrawal on September 12. BFF incumbent vice-president Badal Roy, who was expected to compete against Kazi Salahuddin, also withdrew his presidential candidacy on the same day. But BFF EC rejected it as the former football star submitted his application after the deadline of withdrawal candidacy at 05:00pm. However, BFF EC published the final list of candidates including Badal Roy and provided ballot numbers on September 13.
This year, two panels and two independent candidates are taking part in the polls.
BDST: 1653 HRS, OCT 03, 2020
SMS
