The Ministry of Commerce yesterday appointed an administrator to temporarily run the Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) and hold an election on February 24 to form its executive committee to hand over the responsibilities.

Right after the appointment, the administrator, Jannatul Ferdous, deputy secretary to the ministry, also declared the schedule for the biennial election for 2024-2026.

According to sources, the last committee's tenure ended on October 13 and three days later the ministry extended the term by five months.

MA Awal, managing director of Haveli Property Development Ltd, filed a case with the High Court challenging the extension.

As per the schedule, the election shall be held by secret ballot and each voter shall be entitled to cast one vote for each post.

A voter shall cast 29 votes in one ballot paper. If there are less than or more than 29 votes, the ballot paper will be considered invalid.

A total of 29 directors shall be elected from among valid candidates by direct vote.

The nomination fee for presidential candidate is Tk 1,50,000; senior vice-president Tk 75,000; first vice-president 50,000; second vice-president 50,000; third vice-president Tk 50,000; vice-president (finance) Tk 50,000; vice-president Tk 50,000; and director Tk 25,000.

Each candidate will have to pay an additional Tk 1,000 for the formation of the final voter list when purchasing nomination papers.

The nomination papers should be collected and submitted between January 16 and January 21 by 5:00pm.