BCB Election Commission resolves objections, publishes final voter list

The Election Commission of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Friday announced the final voter list of 191 councillors for the upcoming board of directors' polls, scheduled for October 6.

The final list included councillors from 15 Dhaka-based clubs that were excluded from the draft list, revealed on September 23, as they were under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for irregularities.

In addition, the councillorships of five districts -- Sylhet, Bogura, Pabna, Sirajganj, and Naogaon -- were also granted although the councillorship for Narsingdi district remained vacant.

"We didn't receive any application from Narsingdi district for the councillorship. There were applications from the other five districts. We checked whether they met the criteria for councillorship and after being convinced, we added them to the list," Election Commissioner Kazi Nazrul Islam, who is also the executive director of National Sports Council, told The Daily Star on Friday.

According to the BCB constitution, the deputy commissioner of a district is supposed to approve the nomination of councillorship from that region as the head of the ad-hoc committee running that district's sports association.

However, Nazrul informed that the DCs of those five districts did not approve any names.

"They [deputy commissioners] didn't approve their names. But as they are eligible, the Election Commission decided that they can be included. We followed the BCB constitution before granting their councillorships," he said.

The election commissioner also said that the councillorship of the 15 clubs were granted as they were yet to be convicted by the ACC.

The EC also kept former BCB president Faruque Ahmed's councillorship as it was satisfied with his explanation for late submission.

Nazmul was hopeful that the all doubts over the fairness of the EC will end after the announcement of the final voters list.

"We are working independently and don't have any biases. After seeing the final voter list, I think everyone will feel that we are doing our job the right way."

Meanwhile, BCB director Ifterkhar Rahman Mithu, who received his councillorship from Viking Cricket Academy after the EC's verdict on Friday, welcomed the Election Commission's move.

"There can be some misunderstandings regarding the issue. But the decision the Election Commission gave after following the constitution, will be good for Bangladesh cricket in future," he said.

On Thursday, the EC had conducted hearings on 38 objections submitted regarding the draft voter list at the BCB office.

The nomination forms for the board of directors election will be distributed on Saturday at the BCB office between 10:00am-5:00pm. The candidates will submit their forms on the next day.