Dr Pramod Kumar Rath was elected as the president of the District Bar Association (DBA) here on Friday. This is for the third time that he has been elected as the head of the association. He defeated his only rival Satyanarayan Panda by a margin of 77 votes. While Dr Rath got 305 votes, 228 went in favour of Panda. Dr Rath is the first man to get elected for the third time. His father late Ghanshyam Rath was also president of the association long back. Dillip Kumar Panda was elected as the secretary of the association. The other elected office-bearers include Babrubahan Patnaik (vice-president).