Bangladesh Bar council election to elect new leadership

The Bangladesh Bar Council, the statutory autonomous body that monitors and controls the lawyers in the country, is holding polls to select its new leadership.

The voting began in 78 centres throughout the country on Monday morning to elect the 14-membered executive committee. At least 43,884 lawyers will vote in the polls.

“We have not received any complaint about the election since it started at 10:00 am and expect to finish it peacefully,” Bar Council Secretary Rafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com.

Candidates from panels of pro-government and pro-BNP lawyers have expressed their hope of winning the election.

At present the Bar Council Executive Committee is led by lawyers supporting the ruling party, with 10 AL-backed lawyers and four BNP-backed lawyers.

Seven members if the committee is elected on the general seats through direct voting of certified lawyers throughout the country while remaining seven members are elected from seven regional committees of local level lawyers. The attorney general is the chairman of the bar council in his official capacity. 

Veteran lawyer and present Bar Council Vice-Chairman Abdul Baset Majumder has been nominated as the panel head of the lawyer group supporting the government.

Other candidates in the same panel are advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Syed Rezaur Rahman, SM Rezaul Karim, ZI Khan Panna and Parimal Chandra Guha.

Abdul Baset Majumdar, SM Rezaul Karim and ZI Khan Panna are also members of the present committee.

Former Attorney General AJ Mohammed Ali is leading the BNP backed panel of lawyers. Other candidates of the panel are Advocate Taimur Alam Khandaker, Alhajj Borhan Uddin, md Abbas Uddin, Fazlur Rahman, Helal Uddin Mollah, and Asifa Ashrafi Papia.

AJ Mohammed Ali complained the previous election results were tampered in a press conference on Saturday.

“Any interference of the government in the election will not be tolerated,” he said while urging the presiding officers not to allow irregularities in the election process.  

In a press conference on the same day, Baset Majumder counter-attacked Mohammed Ali saying lawyers supporting BNP are spreading rumours out of fear of defeat in the election.

“There is no scope for fake votes in this election as there is a photo voter list with photo of voters and voters have been asked to bring photocopy of their national ID or passport,” said Baset Majumder.

Baset Majumder termed Mohammed Ali’s claim that voters are being threatened in Jhalakathi as ‘total baseless.’

 “Lawyers from all over the country have responded well to our campaigns. We hope they will vote for us to continue the development and make our entire panel to win,” Majumdar said.

AJ Mohammed Ali, leading the panel supporting BNP, also expressed his hope to win. “We hope our entire panel will win if the election is conducted properly,” he said.