Voting in Bar Council election starts

Voting to elect members of Bangladesh Bar Council started on Wednesday morning. Poll booths at 77 centres across the country opened for voting at 10am and will close at 5pm. The poll is being held three months behind schedule because of complications over the electoral roll. Like the previous elections, the one that began Wednesday pits ruling Awami League-backed lawyers against pro-BNP lawyers. The Bangladesh Bar Council elections is held once every three years. As many as 43,302 lawyers will cast their votes to elect 14 members of the council – 7 for the posts of general members and as many for the region-based posts. These 14 members will elect the vice-chairman. As per the regulations, the attorney general is the chairman of the council. “Voting started on schedule at all centres. Arrangements have been made for those, who have been dropped from the voters’ list, to exercise their franchise,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said. The Bar Council chairman will fix a time to announce the results after details from centres across Bangladesh are available in Dhaka, the council’s Assistant Director (Administration) Nazmul Ahsan said.
The contenders
This year, 61 are contesting for the 14 posts. Of them, 32 are fighting for the general members’ posts and 29 for the region-based members’ posts.
From the pro-BNP Jatyiatabadi Ainjibi Oikya Panel, incumbent Vice-Chairman Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Executive Committee Chairman AJ Mohammad Ali, Enrolment Committee Chairman AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Finance Committee Chairman Sanaullah Mian, and Badruddoza Badal, Md Borhan Uddin, and Mohsin Mia are contesting for the general members' posts.
The candidates from the panel for the posts of the members from local bar councils are Golam Mostafa Khan, Mohammad Abdul Baki Mia, Kabir Chowdhury, Kaimul Haque, Abdul Malek, Md Ishaq and AKM Hafizur Rahman.
The pro-AL Sammilito Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad’s contenders for the general members’ posts are M Amir-Ul Islam, Abdul Baset Majumder, Rokan Uddin Mahmud, Abdul Matin Khosru, Parimal Chandra Guha, ZI Khan Panna and SM Rezaul Karim. The candidates of the panel from the local bar councils are Qazi Nazibullah Hiru, HR Zahid Anwar, Ibrahim Hossain Chowdhury, Sarwar Ahmed Chowdhury Abdal, Parvez Alam Khan, Md Yahia and Md Rezaul Karim.
Besides the panels of pro-BNP and pro-AL lawyers, members of the Ainjibi Oikya Front and Ainjibi Oikya Parishad panels are also fighting in the polls.
Oikya Front’s candidates are Subrata Chowdhury, Shah Md Khosruzzaman, AKM Zoglul Haider Afrik, Sarwar-e-Dwin, Md Helal Uddin, Abdul Momen Chowdhury and Md Shamsul Haque.
The contestants from Oikya Parishad are Md Mahbub Ali Bhuyian, Md Yunus Ali Akand, Md Abul Kalam Azad, Md Abul Hossain, Md Delwar Hossain Mollick, Md Shawkat Hayat, and Sultan A Sabur Chowdhury.
Complications in voter list
The elections were originally scheduled for May 20. The polls plan was announced in March 25 and the voter list with 48,465 published on April 9. Five elected members of the council and another 101 lawyers wrote to the chairman and the secretary, claiming the voters’ list was ‘vague’ and many names were repeated. Following the objections, a Bar Council meeting on May 12 set May 27 for holding the election. Hearing a writ petition, the High Court stayed the polls on May 21 and the council moved the Appellate Division seeking a freeze on the execution of the High Court ruling. The Appellate Division on May 28 set Aug 13 for the polls and ordered publication of the voter list a month before the voting. On July 9, the court shifted the polls day to August 26 following a plea by the attorney general seeking more time to publish the voter list, according to a news agency.
- biplab