REHAB to hold first election in a decade tomorrow

The election for the executive committee of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) will be held tomorrow, with voters anticipating stiff competition among the participants.

This is the first time since 2007 that formal elections will be held as the executive committee was decided through mutual understanding among members for the past six terms.

A total of four panels are contesting this year's election, with voting set to begin from 10:00am and continue till 4:00pm at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in the capital's Farmgate.

The four panels are: Housing Traders Oikya Parishad, Developers Forum, Naba Jagaran, and Joyer Dhara.

The Housing Traders Oikya Parishad will be led by Wahiduzzaman, managing director of Japan Garden City, while MGR Nasir Majumder, chairman of Century Realty Ltd, will head the Developers Forum.

Meanwhile, Nazrul Islam, a former vice-president of REHAB, will be at the helm of Naba Jagaran and Intekhabul Hamid, managing director of Hamid Real Estate Construction, will lead Joyer Dhara.

The election for the 2024-26 term was supposed to be held in September last year but issues regarding the formation of an election commission and irregularities in the voter list caused delays.

In the absence of regular elections, the commerce ministry had suspended the extended tenure of the current REHAB executive committee and appointed an administrator in November last year.

Then, a new election commission was formed and an election schedule was announced.

A total of 86 candidates will compete for 26 director posts in the Dhaka chapter while seven candidates will vie for three director posts in the Chattogram chapter.

Additionally, there are nine candidates for five executive member posts in the Chattogram chapter. In total, 476 of the 839 REHAB members are contesting this election.

Subrata Kumar Dey, chairman of the REHAB election board, ruled out any possibility of interference in the election process by influential individuals as the board is committed to holding a competitive election.

 "There is no possibility of vote rigging," added Dey, who is also joint secretary of the commerce ministry.