Md Anwar Ullah, Dhaka: With excitement, anxiety and an absorbing test of suspense all around, the much-talked-about election to the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) takes place today (Saturday) with 47 contenders vying for 21 posts to lead the development of football across the country.
The election will start at 2pm and continue till 6pm, followed by the BFF Annual General Meeting at the Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon from 10am.
The candidates are now in their last-moment hectic efforts to woo delegates for votes in favour.
This time two panels are contesting – one is “Combined Panel” led by incumbent President Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin and Senior Vice-President Abdus Salam Murshedy, while the other one is “Integrated Panel” led by Sheikh Mohammed Aslam and interesting enough is that this panel has no president candidate.
As usual, limelight is on the all-important coveted post of the president, for which the heavyweight contestants are Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin, who is seeking a record fourth term, and his competitor Shafiqul Islam Manik, who is aiming to spring a surprise.
There may have a big upset if Badal Roy can outsmart Kazi Salahuddin, the fittest candidate. Badal, who is technically a contestant, as his name would be on the ballot sheet following his apparent failure to withdraw nomination before deadline despite prior announcement in this regard.
Salahuddin completed his hat-trick win after eliminating the opponents twice in 2008 and 2016 polls and getting elected unopposed in 2012.
There was a huge possibility though that Salahuddin would face a bit hard-contest when Tarafdar Ruhul Amin along with his people was aiming to compete for the post of BFF president, but he (Tarafdar) withdrew his name all of a sudden from the list of contestants.
Although Tarafdar left the scene, the excitement over an electoral-battle prevailed when Badal, who is also a vice-president of Salahuddin panel, collected nomination in support of his candidature against once his predecessor in national team Salahuddin.
But Badal Roy, too, announced officially that he would stay away from any kind of election activities due to his health concern although he remains a contestant on paper for not withdrawing candidature in time.
However, Salahuddin is not unopposed this time as Shafiqul Islam Manik remains his only challenger in presidential race.
Manik, meanwhile, is an individual candidate as he doesn’t belong to any particular panel.
While talking to The Independent on Friday, some of the former players and organisers, who are not taking part in the polls or joining as the councilors, put across their opinions on the election as they had almost identical voice about the result.
“To be honest, it seemed that there would be almost a one-sided game, as there is no strong candidate against the incumbent BFF President Kazi Salahuddin. Shafiqul Islam Manik looks very much to be a novice. Hence, it doesn’t look to be likely to outsmart Salahuddin,” said an organiser on condition of anonymity.
The former top footballer also said, “Yes, there was a chance of a keenly-contested poll if there was no drama with regard to the candidature of Tarafdar Ruhul Amin and even Badal Roy. Finally, both of them just handed a walkover to the most popular football face Salahuddin.”
Another former player and organiser but not a delegate or voter, on condition anonymity, said, “In fact, it’s tough to predict as to who will win, as it’s a different kind of situation and not a clear election status since there is two panels – one panel doesn’t have its main candidate (president) and the other contesting with some new faces, who are not very known as sports organisers. So, I think it’s tough to comment who’ll win the election battle. But one can speculate that the panel led by Kazi Salahuddin and Salam Murshedy have better chance to win.”
