FBCCI voter under attack

A voter casts her vote in the FBCCI election at the Federation Bhaban in the capital on Saturday.

A supporter of Ganatantrik Parishad panel came under attack while going to cast his vote in the biennial election to the country’s apex trade body FBCCI in Motijheel Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the election board of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) has extended the voting time till 5:20pm.

Originally the election was scheduled to start at 9:00am and continue to 4:30pm without any break. But the commission extended the time as the voting started 26 minutes behind the schedule and the commissioners took a 30-minute break from 3:45pm.

Witnesses said a gang of 15 to 20 unidentified people swooped on Md Amiruddin Bipu, a director of Bangladesh Paper Merchant Association, around 12:40pm and beat him indiscriminately when he was entering the Federation Bhaban.

The attackers also tore down his panjabi, the witnesses said.

Law enforcers rescued Bipu but did not detain anyone in this connection.

Bipu was entering the polling centre along with former FBCCI president Annisul Huq, who is supporting Ganatantrik Parishad panel. Annisul, however, is not contesting the election.

After the attack, Annisul told reporters that they were not taking the attack seriously as such incidents take place in elections.

This year, a total of 1,608 voters from the association group and 390 voters from the chamber group were eligible to cast their votes to elect 30 directors from both groups.

A total of 63 candidates are contesting for the posts of 30 directors (15 from chamber group and 15 from association group) under the banner of two panels for the 2012-14 term election.

In the electoral process, 30 elected directors along with 18 nominated directors (nine from chamber group and nine from association group) would choose the president for a two-year term.

Of the two panels, Chairman of Standard Bank Ltd Kazi Akramuddin Ahmed is leading his own panel.

Source: The Daily Star