The Sammilito Baboshayee Parishad won 15 posts while its opponent Baboshayee Oikko Parishad secured eight posts in the election of the association group of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) on Monday.

The polls took place at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka to elect the leadership of the apex trade body of the country for the tenure of 2023-25. The results were announced early yesterday.

Mahbubul Alam, the representative of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led the Baboshayee Oikko Parishad while Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed led the Sammilito Baboshayee Parishad.

This year the voting took place only for the 23 posts in the association group as 23 directors for the chamber group were elected unopposed earlier.

In the association group, 49 candidates contested. Of them, 23 came from each of the two panels while three contested in the biennial elections as independent candidates.

The voting started at 9am and ended at 4pm without any break. Some 1,746 out of the 1,954 voters cast their votes, giving a turnout of about 89.35 percent, according to data from the FBCCI.

A Matin Chowdhury, chairman of the election board, announced the results at around 2:30am yesterday.

The elected directors are expected to choose the president, a senior vice-president and six vice-presidents today.

As per the rules of the apex trade body, the chamber group and the association group get the chance to elect their nominee as the president in an alternate term. This year the president will be picked up from the chamber group.

Since Alam is leading the chamber group and his panel has secured a majority, the business leader from the port city is set to be the next president of the federation.

Alam's panel bagged 63 out of 80 posts that make up the board of the FBCCI.

Of the directors, 17 are nominated from the chamber group and 17 from the association group. The rest 46 directors are elected, with 23 coming from the chamber group and 23 from the association group.

This year, 16 directors from the chamber group and an equal number of directors from the association group have been nominated after two directors from each group were disqualified.

The election of the chamber group was not required after four out of 27 candidates withdrew their candidacy against 23 posts, allowing the remaining contestants to be elected unopposed.