However, the election board is yet to publish a list of valid candidates following a High Court stay order on publishing such a list.

Yesterday was the last date of withdrawing nominations from the biennial election of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), scheduled for August 21.

Earlier on July 21, the election board had finalised the nominations of 44 candidates, 27 from the chamber group and 17 from the association group, for 24 posts of directors to the executive committee of the apex trade body.

Although the election board is scheduled to publish the list of valid candidates today, it cannot publish the list due to a stay order of the High Court on publishing a valid candidate list.

The High Court on Monday stayed the publication of the valid list of candidates and issued a show cause notice on the government and the FBCCI to state within a week why the cancellation of the nomination paper submitted by the Vice President of Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Bazlur Rahman would not be declared illegal.

The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Rahman, challenging the cancellation of his nomination paper.

The FBCCI election board cancelled his nomination paper alleging that the authorisation letter submitted for his candidature, said to be issued by Narayanganj Chamber, was false.

Rahman appealed against the cancellation to a five-member arbitration tribunal headed by the FBCCI president for settling disputes. But the tribunal on Sunday told him that it failed to hold a session to dispose of the appeal due to quorum crisis, as three of the five-member board were not available. The three -- Kamaluddin Ahmed, Mir Nasir Hossain and Abul Kashem Ahmed -- are also candidates for the election.