New e-CAB Administrator Begins Office Duties Amid Election Stalemate
A month after his appointment, Dr. Saif Uddin Ahmed, the newly appointed administrator of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), reported for his first official day at the organization’s Dhanmondi office on Wednesday, 22 October. The Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce chose to work directly from the e-CAB office rather than from the Secretariat, meeting with the association’s officers and staff members.
Dr. Saif was welcomed by e-CAB Assistant General S.M. Ikramul Haque. Deputy Managers Shahadat Hossain and Shakhawat Hossain were also present. On his first day, following an introductory session with the e-CAB Secretariat staff, Dr. Saif instructed everyone to perform their duties with integrity and transparency to ensure that preparations for the long-awaited election are completed swiftly.
Although he was appointed on 28 September, Dr. Saif had been managing official and project-related affairs of e-CAB from the Secretariat until now. His predecessor, Saeed Ali, completed his tenure earlier, and the ongoing High Court stay order on the election has prevented the new administrator from proceeding with the electoral process.
Amid this stalemate, a group of e-CAB members visited the office to greet Dr. Saif with flowers and urged him to finalize a transparent voter list and resolve court-related issues quickly to facilitate the election.
Discussions were also held on several key issues, including expanding membership, providing assistance to businesses affected by the fire at the Airport Cargo Village, organizing the anniversary event, increasing the limit on Islamic Bank cards introduced by the previous committee, distributing new membership cards, updating the e-commerce policy, and implementing new government projects with transparency for the benefit of members.
Earlier,
the e-CAB election was scheduled to be held on 31 May. However, on 14 May, the Election Board suspended the polls. Later, on 22 July—just three days before the scheduled voting—a High Court order, issued in response to a petition from a disgruntled e-CAB member, halted the election proceedings.
Since then, the matter has remained unresolved. Before the suspension, a total of 36 candidates were contesting for the 2025–2027 executive committee under two full panels—‘Team United’ and ‘Team Tiger’.
