Rubana Huq-led panel sweeps BGMEA polls

Mohammadi Group Managing Director Rubana Huq has been elected the first female president of garment entrepreneurs’ body BGMEA.

The Sammilita-Forum panel led by Rubana won all the 35 posts of directors in the elections held on Saturday.

Jahangir Alamin of the election board announced the results after voting was held from 8am to 4pm in Dhaka and Chattogram.

Rubana, the wife of late Dhaka North mayor and former BGMEA president Annisul Huq, won 1,280 votes.

No candidate of the rival Swadhinata Parishad panel headed by Zahangir Alam, managing director of Design and Source Limited, could secure more than 500 votes.

Out of the 1,956 voters, as many as 1,492 cast their ballots, according to election board member Nihad Kabir.  

The 35 directors – 26 from Dhaka and nine from Chattogram - will now elect the president and seven vice presidents in line with the rules.

As the BGMEA goes to the polls after four years on Saturday, supporters of candidates contesting the elections gather outside the BGMEA Headquarters in Dhaka. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

Since the organisation’s inception, two panels - the Sammilita Parishad and the Forum -have been competing against each other in the BGMEA elections.

But in the last few elections, leaders have been elected through a compromise between the two councils.

The emergence of the Swadhinata Parishad this time forced the two panels to join forces and announce the combined council headed by Rubana.

Read the story in Bangla: বিজিএমইএ ভোটে রুবানার প্যানেলের সবাই জয়ী