The Bangladesh government’s investigation committee has found evidence of vote-rigging, bias and coercion in the October 2025 BCB elections. The five-member committee led by former justice AKM Asaduzzaman submitted its findings to the sports ministry on Sunday.
The committee found BCB’s top brass uncooperative on numerous occasions. Aminul Islam, the erstwhile BCB president, said late last week in an interview that he did not give the committee a face-to-face interview, instead sending a written reply. The committee, however, found the BCB and officials in the sports ministry to be involved in irregularities in the election process.
Mohammed Aminul Ahesan, the NSC sports director, read out the government’s report at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon: “The election process was not free, fair or transparent. Voters were intimidated and procedural irregularities were rampant.”
Ahesan said that the government found enough reason to dissolve the Aminul-led BCB board. Ahesan ended his press briefing by naming the 11 members of the new ad-hoc committee that will run the BCB for the next three months. Tamim Iqbal, the former Bangladesh captain, who had alleged Aminul of abusing his power as BCB president four weeks before the election last year, is the new BCB president.
Tamim’s allegation was the tip of the iceberg for the investigation committee, who found the deadline extension for the submission of councillors’ name to have ulterior motives.
“On March 10, 2026, Mr Shariful Alam and other former councillors made the complaint about the districts and division sports associations. The subject of the complaint was the deadline for submitting councillors’ names from this category. The concerned authority were sent letters on September 1 and 2 that the submission deadline would be September 17. The BCB extended this deadline to September 19 and then September 22,” Ahesan said. “The committee felt that this deadline was extended without proper reason and for ulterior motives, to replace the previously nominated councilors with preferred individuals and create opportunities for them to be elected as directors.”
The committee found BCB president Aminul and then director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim to have secured their councillorship for the 2025 BCB elections through influence. It also stated that the duo were included in the Dhaka division and district ad-hoc committees on September 8 last year through influence of sports ministry officials. Ahesan called it “a serious abuse of power.”
The committee also found evidence of Aminul unilaterally selecting ten former cricketers as councillors to vote in category 3 of the BCB elections. BCB’s chief executive could not provide audio or video recording of the alleged board meeting where Aminul claimed that the BCB directors allowed him to select the ten voters.
“Based on the statements of the other directors interviewed, the committee has inferred that Mr. Aminul Islam Bulbul was not duly authorized to nominate 10 councilors from among the former cricketers,” the report stated.
“Also, as per Article 9.3.3 of the BCB Constitution, the President does not have the power to unilaterally nominate 10 former cricketers as councilors. Therefore, Mr. Aminul Islam Bulbul, as the BCB President, acted beyond his authority by unilaterally nominating 10 former cricketers as councilors. This is a clear abuse of power and a violation of the BCB constitution.
“The committee found that Mr. Aminul Islam Bulbul’s unilateral nomination of 10 former cricketers had a significant impact on the election process, as he received benefits from those councilors and potentially influenced the election outcome.”
According to the report, Aminul and NSC officials were also deemed to have rigged the e-voting process. The conclusion was reached after interviews with voters who called the e-voting system “pre-planned.”
“The committee found that e-voting was conducted from a specific location and the confidentiality of the vote was not maintained, which is against basic democratic principles and the BCB constitution,” the report stated. “Again, most of these voters were present at the polling station on the day of physical voting of e-voters. Although there was an opportunity to vote directly, e-voting was conducted by gathering in one place at the Sheraton Hotel in the capital on the night of the 5th (October 5) and the process seemed to the committee to be vote rigging.”
The committee also found former Bangladesh captain Faruque Ahmed, who was one of BCB’s vice-presidents, to have received undue advantage when he submitted his nomination after the deadline of September 22.
