Awami League will accept whatever Election Commission president forms, PM Hasina says

The Awami League will accept the composition of Election Commission (EC) the president will choose after consultations with all political parties, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stated.

The making of the next EC that will conduct the next general election is hotly debated in Bangladesh's politics now.

The BNP, after its boycott of the Jan 5, 2014 elections, has been saying the current EC headed by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad is not capable of holding fair elections because it 'only acts on government orders'.

The party's Chairperson tKhaleda Zia recently presented a proposal to constitute and strengthen the next EC. The proposal has been sent to the Bangabhaban.

President Md Abdul Hamid, now in Singapore for a health check-up, has said he will sit with the political parties after the Victory Day.

The Rakibuddin-led EC's tenure is ending in February.

Prime Minister Hasina, in the concluding speech of 10th Parliament's 13th session on Thursday, spoke about the matter.

"The honourable president has taken steps. He will hold talks. He will form the Election Commission however he wants after the talks," she said.

"We will see what the president does and we will accept it that way," she added.

The current EC was formed by the then president Zillur Rahman through a search committee set up after talks with political parties in 2012.

The BNP has welcomed Hamid's decision to sit with the political parties and hoped he will not 'follow the government prescription'.

Khaleda proposed that the search committee be formed based on the consensus of 'all parties' - every registered political party or those elected to Parliament ever since independence.

She said the talks on the eligibility, ineligibility and nomination of the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners will have to continue until a ‘consensus’ is reached among 'all parties'.

About Khaleda's proposal, the prime minister said, "The BNP is now speaking about vote rigging and election. It is consulting how the EC will be formed." 

Recalling elections organised by the BNP in 1978, 1979, and 1996, and the announcement of elections in 2006, she said, "Those who conducted such incidents are now presenting proposals."

She said her Awami League party wants free and fair elections. The lines of democracy will have to continue unbroken.