Federation election for strengthening democracy at grassroots

The biennial elections of Nilphamari District Federation Coordination Committee (DFCC) were held at six upazila level offices of RDRS Bangladesh in Nilphamari on Wednesday for strengthening democracy at grassroots levels.

RDRS Bangladesh assisted in arranging the elections for electing the 19-member biennial executive committee of Nilphamari DFCC from representatives of 55 union level federations to establish leadership of socially backward people, a press release said today.

A total of 110 voters, including two male and female representatives from each of the 55 union level federations, were eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections.

However, 97 federation representatives out of total 110 exercised their franchise from 10am to 1pm while the results were declared in the evening.

Of the 19 posts, elections were held for the posts of General Secretary and Joint General Secretary and candidates for the other 17 posts were elected unopposed.

In the elections, Abu Jalal was elected as General Secretary bagging 64 votes defeating his nearest rival Santosh Kumar Wrishi who bagged 31 votes.

On the other hand, Arati Rani Roy was elected as Joint General Secretary bagging 53 votes defeating her nearest rival Abdul Haque who bagged 44 votes.

The other members, who were elected unopposed of the Nilphamari DFCC, are President- Ismail Hossain, Vice-president-Moslema Begum, Cashier-Nurul Amin,Publicity & Communication Secretary- Moshiar Rahman and Advocacy & Networking Secretary-Kamini Kumar Roy.

Cultural & Sports Secretary- Swapna Begum, Disaster Affairs Secretary-Nur Rahman, Women Affairs Secretary- Tarulota Rani Roy and Executive Members-Mayuri Begum, Delwara Begum, Abdus Salam and Azgar Ali.

A three-member Election Commission with Project Coordinator of the School Feeding Project of RDRS Bangladesh Aminur as Chief Election Commissioner and federation leaders Amena Begum and Khairul Islam as Members conducted the elections.

Programme Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh for Nilphamari KM Rashedul Arefin said Strengthening Community-based Organisations for Pro-poor Democratic Governance (SCOPE) Project extended technical assistance in holding the elections.

"The elections were held peacefully in an excellent atmosphere to elect the 19-member executive committee of Nilphamari DFCC for further strengthening democratic practices at grassroots," he said.

Source: BSS.