New Election Commission headed by Nurul Huda to take oath Feb 15

The new Election Commission headed by ex-secretary Nurul Huda will be sworn in on Feb 15.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 7 Feb 2017, 01:23 PM
Updated : 7 Feb 2017, 03:57 PM

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will administer the oath of the CEC and four election commissioners at the Supreme Court Judges’ Lounge at 3 pm on that day.

The four new commissioners are former secretary Rafiqul Islam, former additional secretary Mahbub Talukder, retired district and sessions judge Kabita Khanam and retired brigadier general Shahadat Hossain.

President Md Abdul Hamid picked them from among 10 names recommended by a search committee and appointed them on Monday.

One of the main tasks of the new Commission will be conducting the next general election scheduled to be held by early 2019

High Court Division Additional Registrar Sabbir Faiz told bdnews24.com on Tuesday that the time and place for the oath-taking ceremony were fixed as per the chief justice’s permission and availability.

Outgoing Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad and three election commissioners’ tenure is ending on Wednesday. The other election commissioner’s term will end on Feb 14.

EC Secretary Muhammad Abdullah told bdnews24.com that they sent a letter to the Supreme Court earlier in the afternoon requesting it to administer the oath of the new election commissioners, including the chief, any day after Feb 9.

EC Joint Secretary Md Shajahan said the chief justice gave the date following the letter.

Nurul Huda is going to be the 12th CEC of Bangladesh. With the four new election commissioners, the number of people holding the post in Bangladesh's history will stand at 27.

One-man EC for a week

The outgoing EC led by CEC Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad took charge on Feb 9, 2012.

Other than holding parliamentary election Jan 5, 2014, it conducted some local government polls. The BNP had boycotted the election questioning the ‘neutrality’ of the EC.

The tenure of CEC Rakibuddin and Election Commissioners Md Abdul Mobarak, Abu Hafiz, and Zabed Ali is ending on Wednesday while Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz's term will end on Feb 14.

It means Nawaz alone will be in charge of the EC for a week until the new EC takes the oath of office.

When his attention was drawn to the issue, EC Secretary Abdullah told bdnews24.com: "He (Nawaz) alone will take important policymaking decisions if any comes in the week. He will be the acting CEC at that time."

He said it would let the new election commissioners join office at a time and maintain continuity.