The Bangladesh Cricket Board finally took steps towards holding its long overdue elections when it started to send letters to clubs, DSAs and other parties on Wednesday, asking them to submit the names of their councillors. ‘We started distributing the letters for councillorship [on Wednesday]. Hopefully by [Thursday] they will reach the concerned authorities,’ said acting BCB chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.
‘We asked them to submit the names of the representative [councillors] by September 24,’ he added.
The BCB was supposed to send the letters on August 12 but missed several deadlines, delaying the start of the election process.
The manner in which the letters were sent raised quite a few eyebrows among officials, who complained that all the letters were neither distributed at the same time nor through the same process. In the past, every letter was sent by courier.
Nizam admitted that this was the case but defended the decision, pointing out that nowhere in the constitution is there any guideline about how the letters should be sent to councillors.
‘Some of the letters are being sent by courier and others are being disbursed by hand, but we are keeping note of the receivers,’ said Nizam.
In another departure from past practices, the letters are being accompanied by standardised forms for the councillors to fill out, replacing a system in which the councillors had to provide their information on the official stationery of their respective organisations. The new system has led to some confusion amongst councillors and prompted resistance to the process.
‘Both the newly-introduced form and the timing of the councillorship [nomination process] are inappropriate,’ said Chittagong Divisional sports organiser Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir.
‘As far as I know, we have not received any letter. [Thursday] is a hartal and two government holidays will follow. So when should we discuss who should be nominated from our division?,’ he added, ‘Don’t you think two days is not very much to take such a decision?’
It has been nearly two months since the Supreme Court ruled in favour of holding the elections under the BCB’s amended 2012 constitution, but it is still unclear when the elections will take place.
‘All I can say is that this delay was because of procedural reasons,’ said Nizam.
‘It will probably take another two weeks after we receive the names of the councillors to complete the other formalities in order to hold the election,’ he said.
Some also observed that the process has begun even though the chief election commissioner has yet to be named officially.
’It is the duty of the National Sports Council and the ministry of youth and sports to name the election commission. The BCB has got nothing to do with it. But we are hopeful that it will be formed in due time,’ Nizam said.
The nominated councillors will be divided into three categories, with 71 coming from the district and divisional sports associations, 58 coming from the Dhaka Metropolitan clubs and 45 coming from the other sports associations.
-With New Age input
