AMN/ WEB DESK
Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid has appointed the former Defence Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the new Chief Election Commissioner of Bangladesh.
The gazette notification for the appointment of 4 Election Commissioners and one Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was issued on Saturday. Kazi Awal succeeds K M Nurul Huda whose terms as CEC ended on 14 February.
The other members of the Election Commission are Brigadier General Ahsan Habib Khan (Retd), Former District and Sessions Judge Begum Rashida Sultana, Former Senior Secretary Mohammad Alamgir and Former Senior Secretary Anisur Rahman.
The newly appointed CEC Kazi Habibul Awal, born 1956, did his masters in law from Dhaka University and joined Bangladesh Civil Services (Judicial) in 1981. He served as District and Sessions Judge, and later Secretary in the ministry of law in 2007.
He retired in 2015 as Senior Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. After retirement he was working as Professor at the BRAC university in Dhaka.
The 6-member search committee led by Justice Obaidul Hasan had recommended ten names to the President on Thursday for EC and CEC. It had received 322 names from political parties, organisations and individuals.
The search committee had held several rounds of consultation with political parties, media professionals and other eminent public figures of Bangladesh before recommending the list of 10 names to the President.
Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a few other political parties refused to send names for the EC and CEC to the committee expressing lack of confidence in its functioning.