Six shareholders of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will contest for posts of four directors of the premier bourse as two candidates withdrew their nomination papers Thursday.
Earlier, on 22 January, eight shareholders of the DSE submitted their nomination papers for the elections and Thursday was last date for withdrawing the nomination papers.
The DSE will hold an election on February 12 to select four directors from the bourse's existing shareholders in line with the demutualisation scheme, officials said.
Kazi Firoz Rashid of Kazi Firoz Rashid Securities Ltd and Mohammad Shamim Afzal of Desa Securities Ltd withdraw their nomination papers Thursday, sources said.
Now, six candidates --- Md. Shakil Rizvi of Shakil Rizvi Stock Ltd, Khwaja Ghulam Rasul of Khwaja Equity Services Ltd, Mohammad Shahjahan of Jahan Securities Ltd, Sharif Anowar Hossain of Sahidullah Securities Ltd, Ms. Lailun Nahar Ekram of ASENZ Securities Ltd and Ahmad Rashid of Rashid Investment Services Ltd will contest for posts of four directors.
Md Shamsul Hoque, district and sessions Judge (Retd) will conduct the election as chairman of three member election commission. The other two members are Mahbubur Rahman and M Kamal Unddin.
On February 13, an annual general meeting will be held to adopt the newly-elected directors and hand over the charges to the newly-formed board of the DSE.
Along with the four directors, a 13-member new board will be formed for the demutualised stock exchange. The remaining nine directors will include seven independent directors, one from strategic investors' category and the bourse's chief executive officer, who would have voting rights.
The independent directors will be selected based on the 'fit and proper' criteria mentioned in the demutualisation scheme, which was approved by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on September 26 last year.
Prior to holding the AGM, the DSE will have to send a list of independent directors to the BSEC for regulatory approval.
The tenure of each director and the chief executive officer will be for three years.
A law on demutualisation was passed in parliament on April 29 last year with a promise to bring transparency to the stock market.
