Salahuddin elected BFF president, Salam Sr VP, Imrul VP

Three-time president of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Kazi Md Salahuddin retained his post as he had been unofficially elected for the fourth consecutive time in the BFF elections held at the city’s Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel on Saturday.

Salahuddin, who was leading a 21-member electoral panel named Sammilita Parishad, bagged 94 out of 135 votes while his nearest contestant Badal Roy got 40 and independent candidate only one vote.

A total of 135 out of 139 delegates from clubs, districts, divisions and educational institutions voted to form the 21-member BFF executive committee including president, senior vice-president, four vice presidents and fifteen members.

Four voting delegates -- Sheikh Jamal DC Ltd president Safwan Sobhan Tasvir, Sheikh Russel KC director Maqsoodur Rahman, Chattogram Abahani vice-president Tarafder Md Ruhul Amin and Faridpur District Football Association (DFA) president Nazmul Islam Khandaker Levi were not present there.

Abdus Salam Murshedy from Sammilita Parishad also retained his senior vice-president post securing 91 votes while another candidate Sheikh Mohammad Aslam from Samannoy Parishad got 44 votes.

Three out of four vice-president candidates from Sammilita Parishad were elected. Bashundhara Kings president Imrul Hassan, who was competing for the vice-president posts for the first time, made his debut memorable. He became the first vice-president securing the highest 89 votes.

Other two candidates -- Kazi Nabil Ahmed MP and Ataur Rahman Manik were elected as the second and third vice-presidents respectively. Nabil got 81 and Manik 75 votes.

Two recent past vice-presidents Tabith Awal and Mohiuddin Mohi were tied as both of them got 65 votes each. The election commission decided to arrange re-election for breaking the tie between Tabith and Mohi on October 31 at the BFF House.

Meanwhile, the 3-member election commission, headed by Mezbah Uddin Ahmed, conducted the polls. Other two members are Mahfuzur Rahman Siddique and Motahar Uddin Saju.

The BFF EC announced the schedule on September 3. According to the fresh schedule, a total of 49 nomination papers -- three for president, two for senior vice-president, eight for vice-presidents and 36 for executive committee members -- were sold in three days of nomination distribution from September 5 to 7.

Aspiring candidates for the president, senior vice president and vice president and members bought nomination papers by paying Tk 1 lakh, Tk 75,000 , Tk 50,000 and Tk 25,000 respectively.

Candidates submitted nomination papers on September 8 while BFF Election Commission scrutinized all submitted nomination papers on September 11.

Two candidates -- Saidur Rahman Manik and Zakir Hossain Babul withdrew their candidacy on the last date of candidate withdrawal on September 12.

BFF incumbent vice-president Badal Roy, who was expected to compete against Kazi Salahuddin, withdrew his presidential candidacy on the same day. But BFF EC rejected it as the former football star submitted his application after the deadline of withdrawal candidacy at 5 pm.

However, the BFF EC published the final list of candidates including Badal Roy and provided ballot numbers on September 13.