Pro-AL panel sweeps Bar Council polls

The ruling Awami League-backed lawyers' panel won a landslide victory in the Bangladesh Bar Council elections, defeating the pro-BNP-Jamaat panel.

Sammilito Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad secured 10 out of 14 executive member posts.

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Oikya Panel bagged the rest. The elected members will take the office for the next three years.

The official results are yet to be announced.

The newly elected 14-member executive body in their first meeting will elect from among them a vice-chairman to work as the chief executive. They will also form other standing committees required to run the council.

In the 2012 Bar Council elections, the Oikya Panel had got nine posts while the Samannoy Parishad had secured five posts.

This year's winning candidates of the Samannoy Parishad are: M Amir-Ul Islam, Abdul Baset Majumder, Abdul Matin Khasru, ZI Khan Panna, Nazubullah Hiru, HR Zahid Anwar, Ibrahim Hossain Chowdhury Babul, Parvez Alom Khan, Md Yahia and Md Rezaul Karim Mantu.

The polls were held on Wednesday.

Amir-Ul Islam (14,181 votes), Baset (15,235 votes), Khasru (14,397 votes) and Panna (13190 votes) were elected from general seats, while the six others were elected from regional seats.

The Oikya Panel's wining candidates are BNP leader and current vice chairman of Bar Council Khandker Mahbub Hossain, AJ Mohammad Ali, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Qaimul Hoque.

Mahbub (14,354 votes), Mohammad Ali (13,201 votes) and Khokon (15,138) were elected from general seats and Qaimul was elected from regional seats.

Abdul Baset Majumder declared the unofficial results at his Supreme Court Bar Association chamber. He said the results were collected from the polling centres across the country.

Baset Majumder could not say the number of votes cast in the election and the numbers of votes secured by regional candidates.

The lawyers had voted them (the AL-backed lawyers) for bringing a change in the Bar Council, he said.

The Bar Council is a welfare organisation for lawyers but the outgoing committee has used it for implementing their political agenda, Baset added.

Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters that his panel could not get majority in the Bar Council election, but that does not mean they (Mohammad Ali, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Qaimul and he) had lost or it was the defeat of democracy.

The ruling party-backed lawyers' panel got majority in the elections by giving “hopes and dreams” to the voters, he said. He, however, added that they would cooperate with the Samannoy Parishad-led committee to run the council.

M Amir-Ul Islam and Abdul Baset Majumder are said to be the favourites for the post of vice-chairman of the Bar Council.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who is the ex-officio chairman of the council, told reporters that the official results would be released on Monday.