report in The Daily Star’, July 11, 2023
Nurul Haque Nur was elected Gono Odhikar Parishad president in its first-ever council held yesterday amid intra-party rifts over leadership.
Nur, who was the member secretary of the immediate past committee, bagged 135 votes, while his two other contenders Nazmus Sakib and Bayezid Shahed got 13 and six votes respectively. A total of 162 votes were cast in the president post.
Muhammad Rashed Khan got 103 votes and became the general secretary of the party, while his nearest rival Hasan Al Mamun obtained 43 votes. The two were joint conveners of that committee.
Abu Hanif, Shakil Uzzaman, Hanif Khan Sajib, Shahidul Islam Fahim, Fatema Tasnim, Abduz Zaher, Jashim Uddin Akash and Sarkar Nure Ershad won in the eight posts of the party’s “higher council”.
Voting for the election of president and general secretary of the central executive committee, and eight members of the higher council, began at the party office in the capital’s Paltan at 1:00pm and ended at 5:30pm.
Election Commissioner Ariful Islam announced the polls result around 10:30pm in front of the party office.
Earlier in the day, in a dramatic turn of events, Hasan, who was declared the party member secretary by its former convener Reza Kibria, and some leaders of the Kibria-led faction, joined the council at the last moment.
But Reza was not present.
In reply to a query why he was contesting, Hasan told The Daily Star, “I became the candidate to save the party from its possible splitting. The two factions tried to solve the feud within the party till the end.”
Earlier, the Reza-led faction announced that they would boycott the council.
Even yesterday, his supporters demanded that the council be postponed, but the Nur-led faction did not agree, according to party sources.
To counter the council, the Reza-led faction declared they would hold a protest programme against the Israeli aggression on Palestinians at 11:00am yesterday. But the faction later suspended the programme.
Nur, who gained popularity by protesting against quota in government jobs, contested under the banner of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad in Ducsu election held in 2019 and was elected vice-president.
On October 26, 2021, Nur and his like-minded people formed Gono Odhikar Parishad. Former Gono Forum general secretary Reza was made convener and Nur member secretary of the party.
Rift in the party came to light as Reza and Nur removed each other from the leadership positions last month.
At a meeting of the party’s central committee on July 1, Reza was removed from the post of convener following a no-confidence motion against the latter brought by the Nur-led faction.
In that meeting, the party decided to hold the council yesterday.
Six days after the meeting, several members of the party’s central committee held a press conference where they alleged that Reza’s removal was illegal. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/one-injured-crude-bomb-blast-dhakas-moghbazar-3366136
