Feature

Democracy Triumphs at IBACC

“TOGETHER we aspire, we excel”- with this motto, the newly elected panel of IBA Communication Club (IBACC) has taken over its responsibility as the office bearers of the club. In a fair and transparent election, enthusiastically participated by the general members of IBACC, the panel consisting Joydeep Choudhury (for president), Md. Golam Kibria (for general secretary) and Ishraq karim (for treasurer) came out as the winners. This was a special occasion not only for IBACC, but also for IBA since this is the first time in the history of IBA when an election was held to choose the governing body of a student run club.

Since its inception, IBACC has been very successful both in terms of organizing events and winning national and international competitions. IBA National Debate Championship and BrandWitz have already built their positions as the benchmark events in the country organized by a students' club. Also, the members of IBACC have won plenty of national and international competitions including debates, business plan & case competitions, branding & marketing competitions etc. To continue the glorious journey as well as to reach newer heights, this year IBACC came up with a unique plan to hold an election so that general members of the club can raise their voice through ballot and the office bearers become more accountable to the general members.

It was April 27, 2009. The election process of IBACC started with a briefing from the election commissioners. They explained different aspects of the whole election process and showed the ballot paper to explain the voting system. Since there was only one panel, the voting was done in a referendum style “yes-no” basis. After the briefing from the election commissioners, the moderator of IBACC Professor Syed Munir Khasru gave a speech addressing the members of IBACC. In his speech, Professor Munir emphasized on the fact that, a holistic decision is better than an individual one. He stated that, selection might lead to biasness and lack of professionalism. On the other hand, the democratic system ensures that everyone's voice is heard through ballot. With the expectation that, the voters will give the right decision,

The panel for IBACC election was consisted of three talented and capable people namely Joydeep Choudhury, Md. Golam Kibria and Ishraq Karim who have proven track records of organizing different events as well as winning national and international competitions for IBA. The panel presented their action plans, events they plan to organize, a detailed timeline of the activities they plan to implement for next six months, the structure of executive committee and the financial plans. In their presentation, the panel members stated that, they will continue the regular events and activities of IBACC and also add new ones like: launching IBACC websites, bulletin boards, digital ad and debate video library etc.

After the presentation was over, a grueling question-answer session was held where the members of IBACC asked about every part and parcel of the plans the panel has presented. The panel members confidently answered the queries and ended the Q&A session with a positive note to make IBACC successful with the active participation and ideas from general members. After the Q&A session, came the grand moment…. The first ever voting in the history of IBACC. The members enthusiastically voted to express their decision that is, whether they would like to see this panel as the new office bearers of IBACC or not.

The ballots were counted in front of the voters to ensure transparency. After the counting was over, the moderator of IBACC gave a brief speech. In his speech, he congratulated the panel as well as the voters for participating in the election which was quite a unique and special event for IBACC. Finally, he announced the result. It came out that, the audience gave their verdict in favor of Joydeep-Kibria-Ishraq panel. They were declared the new office bearers of IBACC with huge round of applause and a standing ovation from the audience. With the vow of setting new standards from the newly elected panel, the IBACC election came to an end.