Ex-defence secretary Habibul Awal made CEC

Former secretary of defence ministry Kazi Habibul Awal has been appointed as the next chief election commissioner.
President Abdul Hamid also appointed retired district and sessions judge Begum Rashida Sultana, Brig Gen (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan, retired senior secretary Md Alamgir, and retired senior secretary Anisur Rahman as election commissioners, according to a gazette notification issued by the cabinet ministry today.
Earlier, the search committee submitted a final list of 10 names to the president for the formation of EC on Thursday.
The search committee had asked political parties, professional bodies and individuals to submit their nominations. In response, it got 322 names.
The committee held meetings with eminent citizens, media personalities, university teachers and election experts to know their views and suggestions over the EC formation.
Following their recommendations, the committee published all the 322 names, but it did not publish the names of the final nominations.
The BNP and some other opposition parties did not propose any names, citing no confidence in the search committee.
The previous two search committees, formed in 2012 and 2017, did not disclose proposed names despite demands from political parties.
On February 5, the six-member search committee was formed under the “Appointments of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act-2022”.