FNCCI announces election date

 Kathmandu, Oct. 16

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has decided to hold the elections for the various posts at different locations.

Issuing a notice regarding the annual general meeting and election schedule, the organisation's Election Committee had said that the elections would be held at different places due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The inauguration of the general meeting will kick off online on 26 November at 4:00 PM. The closed meeting will be organised on 27 and elections on 28 November.

Elections will be organised at Nepal Academy, Kamaladi, Karki Banquet, Babarmahal and FNCCI Head Office, Teku.

Voting for the senior vice-president will happen at Nepal Academy, vice-presidents at Karki Banquet and working committee members at FNCCI, according to the notice.

The committee said that district and municipal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) can send two representatives to the meeting while the CCIs that have candidates contesting the election can send three representatives.

About 450 representatives will come to the Capital to participate in the meeting and elections of which 101 are from the commodity associations, 106 are district representatives, and 250 associate members.

 The business body had said that the meeting and elections would be organised with strict adherence to the health and safety protocols against the coronavirus.

As per the statue of the FNCCI, the programmes should have been organised on 10-11 April but the lockdown caused the postponement of the event and it was postponed twice.

The events were rescheduled for August 9 and 10 but were postponed as the cases of COVID-19 continued to increase across the country.

The election does not elect the president of the largest business organisation in the country, since the FNCCI amended its statue about five years ago to automatically elevate the senior VP to the leadership, the highest post to contest the election is the senior VP.

Earlier, on September 8, a committee formed to recommend the modality to organise the election of the FNCCI, had suggested three modalities – organising the general meeting programmes virtually in Zoom, holding the elections of the district and municipal CCI, commodity association and binational chambers in Kathmandu following safety protocols, and holding the elections of the district and municipal CCI in the respective states and of associates in Kathmandu. Application of the modality was about applying the e-voting methods.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 October 2020.