The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association currently has 1,806 active members who are eligible to become voters and can exercise their voting rights in the upcoming BGMEA polls.
According to the latest audit update of February 2025 by the audit farm聽Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co, there are 1482 operational factories in the Dhaka zone and 324 in the Chattogram zone, who are eligible to be voters.
In the last election of 2024, there were 2,496 voters in BGMEA 鈥� 2,064 from the Dhaka zone and 432 from the Chattogram zone.
After the election, some candidates raised questions about voters鈥� eligibility, claiming that a number of non-operational factories were still on voter lists.
The current administrator said they would focus on reforming the voter list so that only operational factories would be eligible to cast their votes.
Thus, 690 members from the previous election鈥檚 list have been removed due to outdated licenses or non-functionality.
Of them, 58 factories in the Dhaka zone and 22 factories in the Chattogram zone are in the process of becoming eligible to exercise their voting rights in the BGMEA polls.
According to the BGMEA notification, the factory will be considered operational and eligible to become a voter when its trade license is updated till the financial year 2024-25.
Moreover, the factory must have an updated income tax certificate at least for the taxation year 2023-24.
The BGMEA notification also stated that the factory needs to have an updated copy of its factory license by at least 2023.
The factory also requires a BGMEA membership certificate up to 2024 and receipts of deposited money for the membership renewal.
Seeking anonymity, former BGMEA leaders told 抖阴精品 that the number of factories eligible for voting may change after getting the preliminary list of voters. As a number of factories are updating their documents and certificates, the number might increase or even decrease.
When asked why nearly 700 factories had been removed from the list, he said that many of them had left the businesses, and a number of factories had not updated licenses; the factories are working on updating.
He also said that an updated list is awaiting approval from the audit farm soon.
In 2024, the number of eligible members to become voters was 2,313, of which 1,852 were in the Dhaka zone, and 461 were in the聽Chattogram zone.
Meanwhile,聽the Ministry of Commerce has extended the tenure of Md Anwar Hossain, vice chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau, as the administrator of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association for an additional four months till June 16 in response to an incomplete election process, according to a notification issued by the ministry recently.
The ministry directive assured that a new board of directors of the BGMEA must be elected at least 15 days before the extended tenure expires, ensuring a seamless leadership transition.
Earlier, on October 20, after dissolving the board of directors of the BGMEA, the commerce ministry appointed Md Anwar Hossain as its administrator.
The board, led by Rafiqul Islam, was formed after SM Mannan Kochi resigned from the BGMEA as its chairman in August following the bloody uprising in 2024.
