No voters’ list announced in last meeting of incumbent board

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) incumbent board of directors held their last meeting on Tuesday with elections to follow on October 6. At the end of a chaotic day, the draft voters' list was not announced even after the board meeting ended past 11:30 PM at night.

To add a twist to a chaotic day, Faruque Ahmed, who was ousted from his role as BCB president earlier this year, returned to election picture after having submitted his nomination paper from Rangers Cricket Academy late on Monday night, well past the cut-off time.

According to the Election Schedule the draft voters' list was set to be announced on Tuesday with 6 PM the cutoff time for accepting councilor names. The board meeting on Tuesday was set to begin on 6:30 PM and at 7 PM the draft voters' list was set to be announced.

The meeting however was postponed to 9 PM with reports suggesting that the draft voters' list had remained incomplete leading to delay. Developments in the day relating to writ petition had only served to fuel the intensity of the upcoming BCB elections.

The BCB meeting came to an end close to 11 PM before BCB media committee chairman Iftekhar Ahmed Mithu addressed the media without the BCB president. When asked, it was informed that the president was sick.

"The board had to delay because it took a couple of hours to get the lawyer certificate. So, we wanted to understand the whole thing before commencing the board meeting, Mahin M. Rahman, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh and BCB's legal advisor, said during the press conference.

Concerns over why the voters' list was not announced was raised while there were questions on why BCB was accepting councilor applications after 6 PM deadline. Mithu informed that the BCB has attached notes with time stamps for applications which were received after the cut off time.

There was no convincing answers related to many of media's questions. With Aminul absent from the press conference, Mithu said that many of the questions that arose should be directed to the BCB president.

The BCB will forward the list to the Election Commission and the Election Commission will announce the draft list. It remains likely that the Election Schedule will face changes.

BCB president's letter to Ministry of Youth and Sports on September 18 was challenged which led to the scenario on Tuesday.

A writ had been filed in the afternoon on Monday, challenging the legality of the letter sent by the BCB president.

The BCB president had sent the letter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, noting that several district and divisional sports associations had not complied with a directive requiring councillors to be nominated from within the ad-hoc committees formed by the National Sports Council (NSC).

The HC bench ordered a stay for 15 days on the operation of the letter and also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned of the government and the BCB to explain in 10 days why the letter should not be declared illegal.

Later in the evening, following following a petition filed by the ministry of youth and sports challenging the HC order, The Supreme Court chamber judge on Monday stayed, the High Court order that had suspended the effectiveness of the letter sent by the BCB president.