CEC, 4 election commissioners sworn in

Newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin and four election commissioners took oath today.

Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed administered the oath at the Supreme Court Judges' Lounge in the afternoon.

On November 21, President Mohammed Shahabuddin appointed former secretary Nasir Uddin as the new CEC and four others as election commissioners under section 118 (1) of the Constitution.The four election commissioners are former additional secretary Md Anwarul Islam Sarker, former district and sessions judge Abdur Rahman Masud, former joint secretary Begum Tahmida Ahmad and Brig General (retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah.

The Election Commission had been vacant since September 5 when members of the previous commission, led by Kazi Habibul Awal, resigned. The EC had never been vacant for this long since it was founded in 1972.

Awal and the other commissioners were about halfway through their five-year tenure.

On October 29, the government formed a six-member search committee led by Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury of the Supreme Court's Appellate Division to come up with the names of two individuals for each EC membership.

The interim government, formed after the ouster of the previous Awami League regime in August, has constituted six commissions to bring reforms to the election system and other fields.

As political parties have for weeks been asking when the election will be held, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on November 17 said the government would issue a roadmap to the election as soon as decisions on electoral reforms were made.