News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Former secretary AMM Nasir Uddin has been appointed as the new chief election commissioner.
President Muhammed Shahabuddin appointed him and other election commissioners on Thursday, a day after the EC search committee submitted the shortlist containing 10 names for those posts.
Other members of the commission are former additional secretary Md Anwarul Islam Sarker, former district and session Judge Abdur Rahmanel Masud, former joint secretary Tahmida Ahmed, and former brigadier general Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah.
Two separate gazette notifications were issued announcing the appointments.
The president made the appointments under his constitutional authority.
The new Election Commission tasked with the holding of the 13th parliamentary elections has been constituted on the basis of the recommendations of the six-member search committee.
The government, on October 29, formed the search committee led by Appellate Division’s Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury in accordance with the Clause-3 of ‘The chief election commissioner and other election commissioners appointment act, 2022’.
The search committee recommended the names of the individuals it had deemed qualified for the positions.
After the announcement, newly appointed chief election commissioner Nasir told reporters that his aim was to hold a free, fair and credible election for the nation to establish the voting right of people.
‘If you want to give it, you must first understand what to do. I will try to understand it first,’ he said while talking to reporters at his New Eskaton home.
Nasir said that so many people sacrificed their lives. Many accepted martyrdom and many others were injured for the right to vote.
‘How many people died in July-August movement? One of the many demands was the establishment of the right to vote. I have to move forward with that responsibility,’ he said.
‘I am fortunate that a reform commission is working under the leadership of Badiul Alam Mazumder. They are experts. So there will be no difficulty in understanding,’ he added.
‘It is my responsibility to close plug the holes that are in the system. I will take initiatives to create an environment where people can spontaneously vote for whoever they want. That is my commitment,’ he said.
Referring previous election commissioners, he said, ‘I understood what people say to them (Election Commission). I understood people’s comments and feelings. I have a lesson in what people think when given an election. I learned from this so that it does not repeat.’
He said that he was informed about his new role on Wednesday.
‘It is a critically important responsibility. The responsibility has become all the more important in today’s context when people sacrificed so much to establish their right to vote. People could not vote in the last three elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024,’ he said.
Earlier on September 5, then chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal and all four election commissioners, Ahsan Habib Khan, Rashida Sultana, Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman, resigned.
Their resignation came a month after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled to India on August 5 amid an unprecedented student-people uprising, ending the 15-year Awami League regime.
On August 6, the president dissolved the 12th parliament which was formed through the January 7 one-sided election conducted by the Awal-led commission.
Before the resignation, Awal at a press briefing said that they were resigning from their posts due to the country’s changed scenario.
He said that holding an election was a very difficult task, and all the blames or responsibilities for an unacceptable election had always been heaped upon solely on the Election Commission.
The Awal commission organised the 12th parliamentary polls amid a large-scale boycott by opposition parties and voters. Drawing harsh criticisms the polls were called a ‘dummy election’ as Awami League’s officially announced candidates contested against own party people who stood as independent candidates in most constituencies.
– Input from New Age was used in this article.
