The curtains have closed on the 2024–26 term elections of the Bangladesh Film Artistes' Association (BFAA), with voting officially coming to an end.
The voting process commenced at 9 am on Friday at the associations office, where artists cast their ballots until 5 pm, with a brief lunch break at noon.
A total of 48 candidates, including six independents, are vying for positions on the 21-member committee, split between two panels: Misha Sawdagar-Monowar Hossain Dipjol and Nipun Akter-Mahmud Koli.
Celebrities from the film industry turned out to support their preferred candidates, although some were unable to participate due to personal commitments or being abroad.
This year, the the association boasts a voting pool of 570 individuals who hold the power to elect the leaders and guardians of film artists for the upcoming two years. As vote counting commenced immediately following the close of polls, the identities of the victorious candidates will only be revealed once the tabulation process concludes.
In order to conduct the polls properly and announce the results, from the morning until the results are announced, there are about two and a half policemen and members of various intelligence agencies of the government in white clothes at different places of the FDC from the main gate. Apart from this, an additional 31 CCTV cameras have been installed at various points of FDC to make polling more uninterrupted.
Before this, the election campaign ended at 12 pm last Wednesday. Candidates are busy with voting. Apart from this, campaigning is prohibited on the day before the polling on Thursday, but the movement of candidates and voters was seen in isolation throughout the day in FDC.