Earlier on July 31, the FBCCI arbitration board failed to hold a scheduled hearing of the appeal filed by Vice President of Narayanganj chamber Bazlur Rahman due to legal obligations.

The election board of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) cancelled Rahman's nomination paper alleging that the 'authorisation letter submitted for his candidature, issued by Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was false'.

Challenging the cancellation decision, Rahman then took the issue to a five-member arbitration tribunal headed by FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo. The tribunal on Sunday told him that it failed to hold a session to dispose of his 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 scheduled for August21.

On August 1, the High Court stayed the publication of a valid list of candidates and issued a show cause notice on the government and the FBCCI to explain within a week why the cancellation of the nomination paper submitted by 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.

Meanwhile, rejecting the appeal by the FBCCI against the stay order on publishing the valid candidates' list, the High Court yesterday told the FBCCI that a full bench hearing on the issue will be held on August 6.

The FBCCI election board was supposed to publish the valid candidates' list yesterday, but it could not publish so due to the stay order.

On the other hand, excepting 24 candidates from the chamber and the association groups, the rest of the candidates withdrew their nominations on August 2, the last date of withdrawing nomination papers, sources said.

The election board on July 21, primarily finalised the nominations of 44 candidates, 27 from chamber group and 17 from association group, for 24 posts of directorship to the executive committee of the FBCCI.