The search committee to appoint the next Election Commission has revealed the names of 322 recommended candidates.
The names of the candidates were disclosed without specifying those who nominated them.
Former civil and military bureaucrats, judges, police officials, academics and top government officials are among the candidates recommended to the search committee for appointment as the next chief election commissioner and election commissioners.
The ruling Awami League and its associate political parties on the 14-party alliance have already recommended names to the committee, as have various other political parties and members of civil society.
Several highly placed sources of the ruling party and its alliances told this newspaper on Monday afternoon that this is the first time the election commission is going to be formed under a law in the country, but the candidates being considered are similar to those selected on previous election commissions.
When contacted, leaders of political parties declined to specify which candidates they had proposed, but some revealed the professions of their recommended candidates.
Agriculture Minister and Awami League presidium member Dr Abdur Razzaque told Dhaka Tribune: “The Awami League submitted the names of former judges and bureaucrats, among other professionals.,”
Rashed Khan Manon, president of Workers Party of Bangladesh, said: “We have submitted ten names of professionally efficient persons, including freedom fighters.”
Dilip Barua, General Secretary of the Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal, revealed two names from his party list of five.
One is former home secretary Kamal Uddin, and the other is former acting chairman of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporations (BCIC) Dipak Kumar Dutta.
Sheikh Shahidul Islam, general secretary of the Jatiya Party (JP-Manju), said the search committee had requested that political parties not reveal which names they had recommended.
He added that former bureaucrats, former lawyers, former judges, former high military officials, and two eminent women were their recommended candidates.
The Hasanul Haque Inu-led Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod) submitted the names of two former civil bureaucrats, a retired judge, a retired district judge, a retired army officer and a retired high police official, party sources said.
The Tariqat submitted the names of 10 persons, two for each post. The name of former senior secretary Kazi Habibul Awal topped the list, said party sources.
Habibul was the secretary of the law and defence ministries.
The other names proposed by the party are: former principal secretary Md Abdul Karim, former senior secretary Kazi Rowshan Akhter, former senior secretary Md Abdus Samad, former secretary and member of Public Service Commission Shahjahan Ali Mollah, former senior secretary at Public Security Division Mostafa Kamal Uddin, Professor Nazma Shaheen of Dhaka University's Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, former vice-chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Brig Gen (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan, former EC joint secretary Abul Kashem, and former senior district and sessions Judge Khan Mohammad Abdul Mannan.
Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari, president of Tariqat federation, told Dhaka Tribune: “We collected around 25 names and some persons contacted our party as well. Finally, we submitted 10 names.”
Gonotontro Party, an ally of the Awami League, submitted seven names, including five bureaucrats and two retired major generals of the army, according to party General Secretary Dr Shahadat Hossain.
The National Awami Party (NAP) proposed only the name of a former additional secretary.
When contacted, a party leader said: “The Election Commission’s work is to conduct the election with the help of the field administration, and that’s why we have suggested the name of a former bureaucrat who has experience in this work.”
The names of former military and police officers were proposed as security is also extremely important during elections, another party leader said.
On February 5, the government issued a gazette notification announcing a six-member search committee headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan, a judge of the Appellate Division, to form the next Election Commission (EC).
The other members of the search committee are High Court Division Judge S M Quddus Zaman, Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, Chairman of Public Service Commission Sohorab Hossain, former election commissioner Mohammed Sohul Hossain and Professor of Bangla literature Anwara Syed Haq.
The committee had received over 300 names from 24 registered political parties and six organizations of professionals as of Friday.
On Sunday, the committee extended the deadline for the submission of names to 5pm on Monday and urged the BNP to post names as well.
The BNP is among the parties that did not come to President Md Abdul Hamid’s talks on the formation of the EC and did not send names to the committee as well.
Justice Obaidul Hassan had said that the committee would disclose all the names regardless of how many there were.