President Md Abdul Hamid yesterday constituted the new Election Commission (EC), appointing retired senior secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the chief election commissioner (CEC).
The president also appointed retired district and sessions Judge Begum Rashida Sultana, Brigadier General (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan and retired senior secretaries Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman as the four election commissioners.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard yesterday.
Kazi Habibul Awal, a law professor at Brac University, joined the Ministry of Defence as Secretary on March 3, 2014.
Then he was appointed as senior secretary at the same ministry on December 1, 2014. He retired on January 20, 2015.
He was reappointed as senior secretary of the Ministry of Defence on January 21, 2015.
Newly appointed Election Commissioner Anisur Rahman has served the government in various roles throughout his career, including as an assistant commissioner, upazila magistrate, and UNO.
Following the announcement about the new Election Commission, Anisur Rahman told the media he would abide by the law of the land in discharging his duties.
“I will try and work for the EC by following the law of the land and powers given to me by the constitution,” he said
He added that the election commissioners would cooperate and hold discussions with each other before making any decisions.
Last Thursday, the search committee constituted to form the new EC had handed over the final 10 names to the president.
On February 14, the Cabinet Division, which was providing secretarial support to the search committee, published 322 names that the political parties, professional bodies and individuals had proposed for inclusion by the committee.
The names of a few people were found more than once when checking and sorting the list. After corrections, there were 315 names on the list. Later, the names on the list were reduced to 50 people, subsequently 20, and finally to 10 that were recommended to the president.
Several parties, including the BNP and CPB, did not recommend any names to the search committee.
At the very beginning, the president had held talks with the registered political parties, where the BNP and a few others refused to hold sittings over the formation of the new EC.
