New Election Commission sworn in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin and four other commissioners were sworn in on Sunday nearly three months after the resignation of the previous commission as deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime was toppled in a student-led mass upsurge.

Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed administered the oath of office to the new commission at the Supreme Court Judges' Lounge at a ceremony joined by the top court judges and concerned officials.

The swearing-in ceremony was staged days after a search committee appointed by the interim government of Muhammad Yunus recommended the names of the new Election Commission chief and members who previously served as civil servants, military officers and lower judiciary judges.

The new chief election commissioner (CEC) is a retired secretary to the government.

The four election commissioners are retired district judges Mohammad Anwarul Islam Sarker and Abdur Rahmanel Masud, retired joint secretary to the government Begum Tahmida Ahmed and retired army brigadier general Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin appointed the new commission on November 21.

The commission had been vacant since September 5 when members of the previous commission, led by Kazi Habibul Awal, resigned after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime was toppled.

Awal and other commission members had tendered their resignation letters on September 5 while officials said the EC had never been vacant for this long since it was founded in 1972.

The interim government on October 29 formed a six-member search committee led by retired Supreme Court judge Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury to come up with the names of two individuals for each EC membership.

The interim government, formed after the ouster of the previous Awami League regime in August, has constituted six commissions to bring reforms to the election system and other fields.

The EC was installed as political parties, including ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), have been asking for weeks for staging elections in the quickest possible time after required reforms in the election system.

Yunus on November 17 said his government would issue an election roadmap as soon as decisions on electoral reforms were made.