News Desk :
The search committee formed to nominate candidates for the president to appoint chief and other election commissioners has finalised its list of names.
The panel met for the last time at the Supreme Court Judges’ Lounge in Dhaka from 4:30pm on Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com
After the nearly four-hour meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam confirmed that the committee finalised 10 candidates for the upcoming Election Commission.
“Their meetings, selection, everything has ended. They have finalised everything,” he said. The Cabinet Division has provided the panel with secretarial support.
The committee will meet President Md Abdul Hamid on Thursday to submit the list, the secretary said.
After receiving the list, the president will appoint the chief and four other election commissioners. The new Election Commission will oversee the next parliamentary election.
Eminent citizens called for the publication of the names of all candidates in meetings with the committee, which did publish the names of over 300 names proposed by political parties, groups of professionals and individuals. But Justice Obaidul Hassan, an Appellate Division judge who has headed the panel, said on Sunday the list of the 10 final candidates will only be for the eyes of the president.
“It’s the honourable president’s domain. If he asks us to publish the names after the submission, we’ll do so,” he said, citing the recently passed law to form the Election Commission. The committee on Saturday picked 20 possible candidates from the proposed names and trimmed it down to 12 on Sunday.
The other members of the panel are Justice SM Kuddus Zaman, Comptroller and Auditor General Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, Bangladesh Public Service Commission Chairman Sohorab Hossain, former election commissioner Mohammed Sohul Hussain and fiction writer Anwara Syed Haq.
The committee is charged with carrying out its responsibilities impartially and transparently, and it will nominate people according to the requisite qualifications, prohibitions, experience, skills and reputation, as stated by the law.
