EC RECONSTITUTION
Six-member search committee formed
Body gets 10 working days to submit recommendations to president
Special Correspondent
Ending all speculations, President Md Abdul Hamid yesterday formed a 6-member search committee to reconstitute the next Election Commission (EC), which will conduct the next general elections scheduled for January 2019.A judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, who headed the first search committee in 2012, has been made the head of the committee for the second consecutive time.
Other members of the committee are High Court Division Justice Obaidul Hassan, Comptroller and Auditor General Masud Ahmed, Public Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Dr Muhammed Sadique, Dhaka University English Department Professor Dr Syed Manzoorul Islam and Chittagong University Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Shireen Akhter.
The committee has been asked to submit its recommendations before the president by 10 working days, according to a gazette notification issued by the Cabinet Division and signed by its secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam.
It was also asked to recommend two names against each vacant post of the chief election commissioner and other commissioners, reads the gazette notification. The committee has also been asked to recommend at least one female member for the next EC. The tenure of the incumbent EC expires on February 8.
Earlier in the day, the president finalised names of four of the six search committee members and sent the
list to the Cabinet Division for taking further steps.
He also asked the Cabinet Division to take names of two other members the head and another one from the chief justice as these two members will be two incumbent judges one from the Appellate Division and another
from the High Court Division of the Supreme Court.
The Cabinet Division later in the evening got the names of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Obaidul Hassan from the chief justice.
The cabinet secretary then prepared a proposal with the six names and sent it to the Prime Ministers Office for the premiers approval.
The Cabinet Division finally took approval from the president before issuing the gazette notification.
One of the six new members, Shireen Akhter, also an executive committee member of Chittagong University Teachers Association and daughter of a former Awami League leader, told The Independent that the job of the committee is challenging.
Im yet to receive the letter. Once all the six of us get the letter, we will sit together to determine the next course of action, she added.
Sources said the search committee will hold a meeting within the shortest possible time and pick names for the next EC.
The search committee is the outcome of a month-long dialogue between the president and political parties on the reconstitution of the EC that concluded on January 18.
Most of the participating political parties, including the AL, advocated for the enactment of a law alongside the formation of a search committee to ensure an independent and strong Election Commission.
Accordingly, the president held a series of meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and senior officials of Bangabhaban to form the committee.
In 2012, the incumbent Election Commission was formed through a search committee recommended by most of the political parties that had held talks with then president Zillur Rahman.
