All eyes on today�s BFF elections
Salahuddin, Ashraf to vie for coveted president post
Sports Reporter
The much talked about and breathtaking elections of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) will take place today at a local hotel with incumbent president Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin will fight with Kamrul Asharaf Khan Poton MP, for the coveted post.
The election will start from 2pm following the Annual General (AGM) meeting will start from 11am at the Hotel Radisson Blue. A total of 134 delegates will cast their votes for 20 posts out of 21 posts while there will be no poll for senior vice-president post as only current senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedi remained in the foray. After withdrawing of two president candidates, Golam Rabbani Helal and Nurul Islam Nuru, now the contest will be between Kazi Salahuddin and Kamrul Ashraf Poton for the post of president.
Meanwhile, a total of 59 nomination papers were bought to compete for the 21 posts but 11 candidates withdrew their papers and now 48 candidates will fight in the elections. But it was the most surprising when the heavyweight candidate Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul withdrew the nomination paper of senior vice-president just left the post open for his rival Abdus Salam Murshedi, who, is all set to be elected unopposed.
However, the election of the BFF is going to be held for the third consecutive times regularly. It was never happened in the past before 2008 when Kazi Salahuddin was elected the first president of the BFF by straight councillors votes.
Salahuddin, though had not face any contest to be elected the BFF president for successive times as unopposed. This time some of his friends just stood against him and declared their intention to compete in the BFF election.
But the situation has become very odd as some members of Salahuddin panel alleged that some quarters have been threatening the councillors of outside Dhaka and also clubs of different divisions in Dhaka.
The condition gradually has turned into tense situation and the supporters of the Kazi Salahuddin panel getting threats from some quarters as alleged by the pro-Salahuddin people.
It seemed that the situation became worst when the panel of Kazi Salahuddin was forced to postpone their programme with the councillors at the Hotel Purbani in the capital on Wednesday at the face of random threat to councilors from a certain quarter not to join in the Hotel Purbani candidate introducing meeting.
From the Salahduddin led panel, Badal Roy, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Shamsul Haque MP and Mohiuddin Mohi are vice-president candidates. Harunur Rashid, Abdur Rahim, Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir, Fazlur Rahman Babul, Sattayajit Das Rupu, Alamgir Alo, Ilias Hossain, Airf Hossain Moon, Saleh Zaman Selim, Amirul Islam Babu, Mohiuddin Ahmed Selim, Towfiqul Islam Tofa, Mahfuza Akhter Kiron, Amit Khan Shuvra and Zakir Hossain Chowdhury will contest for executive member posts.
Meanwhile, Abdus Salam Murshedi has already been elected unopposed in the senior vice-president post from this panel.
On the other hand Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu, Khorshed Alam Babul, Mominul Haque Sayed and Najib Ahmed will contest for vice-president posts from Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton led Save the Football panel. The member candidates from the latter panel are: Bijon Barua, Kaiser Hamid, Rumman Bin Waly Sabbir, Abu Hassan Prince, Khokon, Abdul Gaffar, Sheikh Mohammed Aslam, AKM Nowsheruzzaman, Tipu Sultan, Azfar-uz-Zaman Khan Sohrab, Mohammed Iqbal Khokon, Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu, Saifur Rahman Moni, Imtiaz Sultan Jony and Quamrun Nahar Dana.
Meanwhile, Tabith Awal and Sheikh Maruf Hassan are two independent candidates for the post of vice-president, while Iqbal Hossain, Amer Khan and Asaduzzaman Mithu are also the three independent candidates for the executive committee members.
