Boycott by a faction before the elections: Questionable Sylhet Women’s Chamber

SA Shofiee, Sylhet:
Ahead of the elections, the Sylhet Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry is practically divided into two factions. One faction is led by Professor Samia Begum Chowdhury and the other is former acting president Lubana Yasmin Shampa. Lubana’s faction alleges that there is an attempt to politicize the Women’s Chamber. Samia Group says this allegation is not true. Women entrepreneurs are definitely eligible to become members.

Meanwhile, Lubana Group members have expressed concerns about a fair and impartial election as they refrained from submitting membership forms on the last day of submitting renewal fees. As a result, the issue of political influence in the Women’s Chamber in the upcoming elections has come up for discussion even if an administrator is elected.

Talking to the members of the Women’s Chamber, it was learned that the last date for submitting membership renewal fees was April 27. But on that day, the former acting president of the Women’s Chamber, Lubana Yasmin Shampa, was present at the chamber office, but the members of the group refrained from submitting the forms at the last minute. As a result, that party withdrew from the election. And the other party, Samia Begum Chowdhury, submitted 178 forms (in two phases). However, 90 forms were submitted by Lubana Group until April 17, the date announced by the administrator for submitting the renewal fee in the first phase. The chamber office has informed that the voter list will be provided after verifying the forms and information of the members on Monday (April 28).

It was learned from the members that according to the time set by the administrator, April 17 was the final date for submitting the renewal fee of the members. But in view of the written statement of a section, the chamber administrator came on the last day of April 17 and extended the renewal deadline by another 10 days to April 27. The former acting president of the chamber, Lubana Yasmin, organized a press conference on the same day, citing the issue of political influence. At the press conference, the people of Lubana Yasmin’s side accused the women’s chamber of trying to politicize it. She said that the women’s chamber is an organization of women entrepreneurs. Here, all women entrepreneurs, regardless of party or opinion, reserve the right to vote. Therefore, trying to politicize such an organization can never bring good results.
However, in response to such a question at that time, Samia Begum Chowdhury denied the allegations to the media and said that it was very difficult for women entrepreneurs to pay the renewal fee of 8 thousand taka in just 10 days and an application was made to the administrator. Taking this matter into consideration, the administrator extended the deadline by 10 days from April 17 to April 27.
Lubana Yasmin Shampa, who mentioned the issue as having a political motive, said that the administrator has succumbed to political pressure. That is why he suddenly extended the time by 10 days by talking to one party and gave them the opportunity to renew their membership en masse. As a result, we have refrained from submitting the forms.

A founding member of the chamber (currently an expatriate) said on condition of anonymity, there are a handful of women entrepreneurs in Sylhet, who are very familiar faces to everyone. But with the elections ahead, the issue of submitting forms at an unusual rate from one party will undoubtedly question the smooth and impartial elections.

Another member, Koli Akhter, said that after collecting the forms, I went to the Women’s Chamber office on April 27 to submit them. Most of the women who came to submit the forms there did not seem to be entrepreneurs. As a result, the matter seemed mysterious to me. He said, I do not understand politics and am not a politician. Therefore, I have refrained from submitting the forms because I do not want to involve myself in the crowd of strangers for the convenience of any party, unlike entrepreneurial members.

Sylhet Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one of the leading registered trade associations involved in the economic empowerment of women in Bangladesh. When this organization was established in 2015, Swarnalata Roy served as the president. The organization aims to protect, develop, support and promote all measures to ensure a conducive environment for business enterprises owned and operated by women entrepreneurs. According to its constitution, the board of directors will be 11 members. Its members were of 4 categories. The categories are Sabujkudi, Samharan, Ordinary and Associate. However, the power to exercise voting rights was of the Ordinary and Associate categories. The number of members in the 4 categories was about 220. The 4 categories are Sabujkudi, Samharan, Ordinary and Associate. The number of members in these two categories was about 53. After the appointment of administrators, now only two categories have been given the opportunity to renew membership fees. Among them, only the Ordinary category will have the power to vote. However, the associate class will also get the opportunity to become a member. The membership fee for the associate class is 3 thousand taka and the fee for the ordinary member is 8 thousand taka.
It was alleged that the activities of the organization had been going on for a long time without any elections due to the support of the founding president. The members were angry about this. However, no one had the courage to speak against the president. But after the change in the political landscape on August 5, the scenario changed. When Swarnalata Roy, who had been the president for 10 consecutive years, resigned from the post of president, for the first time on March 19, an office order signed by Mohammad Navid Shafiullah, Director General and Additional Secretary of the Trade Organization Division of the Ministry of Commerce, announced the resignation of the Sylhet Women’s Chamber.