e-CAB Administrator Calls for Support Committee to Facilitate Election, Members Seek a Neutral Oversight
The administrator of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), Muhammad Saeed Ali, has emphasized the need to form a support committee to facilitate the upcoming executive committee election within the stipulated 120 days, as well as to update the voter list. The administrator, who is also a Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce's Central Digital Commerce Cell, highlighted this during a members' consultative meeting held on Monday at the Liberation War Museum Conference Center in Agargaon, Dhaka.
Addressing the general members of e-CAB, Muhammad Saeed Ali stated, "I am making every effort to hand over responsibilities to the elected representatives within the given 120 days. Along with managing the regular activities of e-CAB, I am prioritizing the updating of the voter list to ensure a fair election. However, the current manpower at the e-CAB secretariat is not sufficient to organize the election. Therefore, I intend to form a support committee of 6-7 individuals from among you to assist with the election process. I also welcome your suggestions for conducting the election, but please refrain from making demands, as it is not within my jurisdiction to fulfill them."
He further mentioned that the government will also form an election committee to oversee the process.
The meeting, which lasted for nearly three hours, was attended by over 200 members, with over 100 participants speaking. Most of the speakers were young members, and many expressed interest in giving the administrator more time to reform e-CAB. Topics of discussion included updating voter IDs, reactivating inactive members, and addressing criticisms regarding the management of relief efforts during the recent floods. Some members also called for an audit of these controversial issues.
Founding member Mir Shahed Ali emphasized the need for the updated membership list to be brought under review before the election.
Former Senior Vice President of e-CAB, Sahab Uddin Shipon, proposed reforms to the voter list, the formation of a support committee led by a widely accepted individual, and the implementation of strict rules to ensure that candidates can participate in the election with minimal expenses.
Biplob G Rahul, the founder of e-Courier, stressed the importance of forming a support committee that is accepted by all and setting clear KPIs for the executive committee. Additionally, he suggested that the low attendance at the meeting underscored the need for online voting and opinion collection.
Model Ontu Karim emphasized the need to update the voter list with only active business owners. Meanwhile, Zia Ashraf, CEO of Chaldal.com, criticized the lack of transparency in communications surrounding the election and proposed using Google Forms to gather input from all members. He also advocated for the appointment of multiple digital counting firms for vote tallying and allowing candidates to challenge the results through independent OCR counting agencies.
