Veteran actor Ilias Kanchan has been elected as the new president of the Bangladesh Film Artistes' Association.

Actor Zayed Khan, on the other hand, was  re-elected as the general secretary in the 17th edition of the Association elections held on Friday.

Pirzada Harun, the Chief Election Commissioner, announced the results in the early hours of Saturday at the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) office in Dhaka.

The newly elected president who was the the Kanchan-Nipun panel's candidate got a total of 191 votes. His opponent, Misha Sawdagor, the immediate-past president, bagged 148 votes.

Representing the Misha-Zayed panel, the re-elected general secretary got 176 votes, while his opponent actress Nipun from the Kanchan-Nipun panel bagged 163 votes.

With 219 and 191 votes, Monowar Hossain Dipjol and Masum Parvez Rubel retained their positions as vice-presidents from the Misha-Zayed panel, defeating actor Riaz and DA Tayed who received 156 and 112 votes, respectively.

Among other candidates, actress Shahnoor and actor Symon Sadik have been elected as the new joint secretary and assistant general secretary, respectively.

Similarly, former international affairs secretary Mamnun Emon was elected as the new secretary for culture and sports. He was the Kanchan-Nipun panel's candidate.

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Different from the 2019 election’s ‘clean-sweep’ by the Misha-Zayed panel, this year’s executive body with a tenure of two years has a mix of members from both panels.

Actors Anjana, Rozina, Aruna Biswas, Sucharita, Ali Raj, Chunnu and last term’s presidential candidate Moushumi will join the new executive body from the Misha-Zayed panel, while actors Keya, Jasmine, Amit Hasan and Ferdous, who received the highest votes among all the candidates, will join from the Kanchan-Nipun panel.

Voting activities for the biennale election were conducted under the strict vigil of police and RAB on the BFDC premises, adhering to all Covid-safety protocols.

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A total of 428 candidates were listed as  voters for this year’s election, while 365 cast their ballots to elect the new executive body. The EC rejected 26 votes for various reasons. Some 184 artistes were excluded from voting in this year’s election.