Rafiqul Islam Azad of 'The Independent' has been elected president and Reaz Chowdhury of 'theasianmail.com' general secretary in Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) elections.
The members of the Unity cast their votes from 9am to 5pm on Saturday (Nov 30) to elect a 21-member committee for a one-year term. The election was fought individually without forming any panel.
Amid huge enthusiasm, 1,329 voters out of 1,635 cast votes to elect DRU’s the executive committee for 2020 term.
Azad bagged 550 votes while his nearest rival Shah Newaz Dulal polled 489. Reaz got 567 votes to defeat Nurul Islam Hasib by only two votes.
Nazrul Kabir was elected vice-president polling 488 votes and Helemul Alam Biplob was elected joint secretary securing the highest 851 votes among the elected executive members.
The other elected office-bearers are Finance Secretary Ziaul Haque Sabuj (Unopposed), Organising Secretary Habibur Rahman, Office Secretary Jafar Iqbal, Women Affairs Secretary Rita Nahar (unopposed), Publicity and Publication Secretary Maidur Rahman Rubel, Training And Research Secretary Sakhawat Hossain Sumon, Sports Secretary Mojibur Rahman, Cultural Affairs Secretary Mizan Chowdhury, Entertainment Secretary HM Akhter (unopposed) and Welfare Secretary Khalid Saifullah (unopposed).
The executive members are Moinul Ahasn, SM Mizan, Musfiqa Naznin, Kamruzzaman Bablu, Imran Hasan Majumder, Murad Hossain and Sayeed Abdul Malik.
Election Commissioner Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul announced the election results around 6:30pm after the counting of votes.