President puts six in search committee to find new election commissioners

President Md Abdul Hamid is taking help of two university professors and four others to pick a chief election commissioner and election commissioners for the new Election Commission.

Supreme Court’s Appellate Division judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain is heading the committee, which will recommend names to the president.

Justice Syed Hossain helmed the search committee that had formed the current Election Commission.

A High Court judge has also been put in the panel like the previous search committee. Justice Obaidul Hassan has been given the job this time.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman and comptroller and auditor general (CAG) will also be in the search committee. Muhammed Sadique is the PSC chief now while Masud Ahmed is the CAG.

The two others in the committte are  Dhaka University English Department Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, and Chittagong University Pro-VC Shireen Akhter.

The Cabinet Division issued the gazette on the search committee on Wednesday. The committee has been given 10 work days to submit the recommendations to the president.
 
Additional Cabinet Secretary Abdul Wadud told reporters: “The Cabinet Division issued the gazette forming the search committee in order to constitute the EC following the talks between the president and the political parties.”

High Court judge Justice Md Nuruzzaman, the then PSC chairman AT Ahmedul Huq Choudhury and the then CAG Ataul Hakeem were with Justice Syed Mahmud in the previous search committee.
 
The then president late Md Zillur Rahman constituted the current EC of five election commissioners with former secretary Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed as chief one.
 
Now President Hamid has included two university teachers in the committee.
 
Like Zillur, Hamid held talks with political parties on forming the commission.

After getting the Bangabhaban’s letter on forming the search committee earlier in the morning, the Cabinet Division made a summary and sent it to the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Cabinet Division, which will provide the committee with secretarial help, issued the gazette when the document returned from the PMO.
 
The search committee has also been asked to include a female election commissioner in the new EC.
 
The BNP has already reacted sharply over the committee before it was announced.
 
Following media reports revealing the names of the members of the committee, the party’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said all of them are ‘favoured by the government’.
 
“Not only are we frustrated, but we are also irked by it. We don’t know what kind of EC will be formed by this search committee,” he said.

The ruling Awami League has urged all to put trust in the president.
 
“Surely the Election Commission will be accepted by all,” Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul Aam Hanif said in an immediate reaction to the formation of the committee.

The search committee members

The President’s Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin confirmed the size of the committee to bdnews24.com earlier in the morning. He did not agree to be named before the official announcement.

Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam met Law Minister Anisul Huq after getting the Bangabhaban letter. They then met Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha at the Supreme Court.

Shafiul, also declining to reveal the names, told bdnews24.com in the morning that they will issue a gazette after getting both the prime minister and the president’s approval.

A Bangabhaban official, requesting anonymity, revealed the names of the five members of the search committee.

When contacted in the afternoon, Prof Shireen told bdnews24.com: “I came to know about the matter in the afternoon. It’s a sacred duty. I want to finish it nicely and impartially with everyone’s help once I get the charge.”

Prof Manzoorul, who is also a member of Transparency International, Bangladesh’s Trustee Board, did not comment on the matter. A person close to him confirmed that the government had contacted him with the offer.

Later in the evening, the Cabinet Division published all the names through the gazette.

Syed Mahmud Hossain

 

Syed Mahmud Hossain:

Justice Syed Mahmud has been in the Appellate Division for six years.

He enrolled as an advocate of the district court in 1981 and the High Court in 1983.

Having acted as a deputy attorney general from December 1999, he was appointed additional judge in the High Court Division in February, 2001, and promoted to a judge in February, 2003.

He was elevated to the Appellate Division on Feb 23, 2011.

Obaidul Hassan

 

Obaidul Hassan:

Obtaining BSS (Honours), MSS (Economics) and LLB from the University of Dhaka, Justice Obaidul enrolled as an advocate of the district court, the High Court Division and the Appellate Division in March 1986,  October 1988, and August 2005, respectively.

He was elevated as additional judge of the High Court Division in June 2009 and appointed judge of the same division in June two year later.

He worked as the chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal-2 after it was formed in 2012 and returned to the High Court Division when the ICT-2 was merged with the other one in 2015.

Muhammed Sadique

 

Muhammed Sadique:

A 1982 BCS Administration Cadre officer, Sadique went on work as secretary to the EC and education ministry earlier. He was appointed a member of the PSC while in post-retirement leave in October, 2014.

He was appointed chairman of the commission in April last year. He is also a member of the Bangla Academy, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Jatiya Kabita Parishad and Bangladesh Writers’ Club.

Masud Ahmed

 

Masud Ahmed:

Masud Ahmed was appointed Comptroller and Auditor General in April 2013. An official of 1981 batch of Accounts and Audit Cadre, he worked as secretary to the Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs ministry and a member of the Planning Commission.

He is also a writer. The number of his stories is 100. He has also authored seven novels. Eight telefilms made from his works have been aired.

Syed Manzoorul Islam

 

Syed Manzoorul Islam:

Dhaka University’s English Department Professor Syed Manzoorul is also a writer. He has received several awards including one from the Bangla Academy. He is also a member of the TIB Trustee Board.

Shireen Akhter:

Prof Shireen started work as the first female pro-vice chancellor of Chittagong University in March last year. He joined the university’s Department of Bangla as a lecturer in 1996.

Shireen Akhter

How the search committee will work

The panel will recommend some names to the president for the appointment of the CEC and other election commissioners.

The president will pick out not more than five of them, including the CEC.
 
After the formation of the previous search committee, the Cabinet Division had asked the political parties, which had taken part in the president’s talks, to send maximum five names for the EC.
 
That search committee had also asked for the list of all former cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries at that time.
 
The Supreme Court registrar had been asked to send the names of former district judges. The search party had also collected names of individuals on their own and then sat to finalise the recommendations.
 
This time, the committee’s quorum will be made of three members. They will finalise the recommendation on the basis of a majority decision.

In case of equal numbers of votes, the decision of the member chairing the meeting will be considered final.
 
The committee will dissolve once it sends the recommendations to the president.