BGMEA extends voting time to ensure virus health rules

Garment exporters’ group BGMEA has extended the time for voting in the elections to its body of executives.

More than 2,000 members of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association will vote from 9 am to 7 pm instead of 10 am to 5 am on Sunday.

Ahead of the voting at the Radisson hotel and the BGMEA office in Chattogram, the candidates from the two panels -- Sammilita Parishad and Forum -- were busy with the last-minute campaign on Saturday.

Both panels have some new candidates who took over garment factories owned by their parents.   

ABM Shamsuddin, managing director of Hannan Group, is heading the Forum panel of outgoing BGMEA President Rubana Huq, who is also contesting in the election from the same panel.

Jahangir Alam, managing director of the Design and Source, had formed a separate panel called Swadhinata Parishad before the 2019 election to the association, seeking to challenge the nomination of a president through compromise between the two main camps.

Jahangir had hinted at contesting in the election again this time, but finally decided to back the Sammilita Parishad, which has picked him as a candidate of their own.

Faruque Hassan of Giant Group is leading the Parishad panel of candidates this time. Abdus Salam Murshedy, former president of the BGMEA, is the coordinator of the panel.

Rafiqul Islam, secretary of the Election Board, said the time for voting has been extended so that the voters do not need to pack the voting centres.

The voting time for each voter has also been fixed and texted to them, he said.

Syed Farhat Anwar, chairman of the board, said they will give maximum priority to the health rules fixed by the government amid the pandemic.

The board will also try to count the votes and announce the results fast, he added.

The government has decided to impose a seven-day lockdown across Bangladesh from Monday to curb a new wave of coronavirus infection.

The Sammilita Parishad and the Forum have been competing against each other in the BGMEA elections since the organisation’s inception.

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

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