The election of the Association of Travel Agencies of Bangladesh (ATAB), an apex body of the country’s travel and air ticketing agencies, is scheduled to be held on Tuesday (tomorrow).
The votes of the organization will be taken in three separate venues across the country from 9am to 4pm on the day. The venues are- Police International Conference Center (BICC) at New Eskaton in Dhaka, and two other venues in Chattogram and Sylhet.
According to the ATAB members, more than 2,100 voters of the apex body of the travel agents will elect their future leadership through the elections. The ATAB members will also exercise their voting rights for electing three regional council of ATAB for Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet. For Dhaka, the number of office bearers is 17 including a president and a general secretary while the number for Chattogram and Sylhet is only six.
In the election, three panels led by Farid Ahmed Majumder, former ATAB secretary general Aslam Khan and outgoing ATAB secretary general Abdus Salam Aref have been contesting the polls for the top post of its new committee as panel chief. Of the three panels, Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) President M. Shahadat Hossain Taslim has been backing the panel of Farid Ahmed Majumder while former ATAB secretary general Aslam Khan is backed by outgoing ATAB President Manjur Mahbub Morshed and Abdus Salam Aref contesting the polls with the support of a former president.
According to the ATAB members, Manjur Mahbub Morshed and Abdus Salam Aref contested the previous elections together and run the organization for last two years while Farid Ahmed Majumder previously led the HAAB as its vice president. Farid Majumder’s panel failed to win the last election.
ATAB members claimed due to some financial irregularities in the last two years, conflicting situation has been arisen among the two leaders. As a result, they initiated two separate panels for this election. The voters claimed that the outgoing committees promoted the online travel agencies during their period. As a result, most the government approved travel agencies have lost their market. Only online six travel agencies have been dominating 40 percent share of the entire market, while more than 4,000 valid travel agencies sharing the rests 60 percent.
In this situation, most of the voters want change in their leadership to establish a corruption-free ATAB.
When contacted, Farid Ahmed Majumder told this correspondent that his panel will work to ensure a corruption-free, transparent and member-friendly ATAB, if it wins the election.
Expressing hope to be elected in the election, ATAB Secretary General Abdus Salam Aref said the voters want them again. They always work for the voters and will continue to do it if they win again.