New CEC and four ECs to take oath this afternoon

The oath-taking ceremony of the newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) former senior secretary Kazi Habibul Awal and four other election commissioners (ECs) will be held this afternoon.

The oath-taking ceremony will be held at 4:30pm at the Judge's Lounge of the Supreme Court here.

Former Senior Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal got the appointment as CEC.

The four ECs are District and Session Judge (Retd) Begum Rashida Sultana, Brigadier General Ahsan Habib Khan (Retd), Senior Secretary (Retd) M Alamgir and Senior Secretary (Retd) Anisur Rahman.

On Saturday, President M Abdul Hamid gave the appointment of CEC and other ECs and the cabinet division issued a gazette notification in this regard.

Earlier on February 22, the search committee on the formation of the EC had finalized the name of 10 selected persons. The committee handed over a  list of the selected persons to the head of the country on February 24.

"The search committee has finalized the names of 10 prominent persons," said Cabinet Secretary Khondoker Anwarul Islam who is providing secretarial aid to the EC. 

Appellate Division Justice Obaidul Hasan performed the role as the chief of the search committee. The other members of the search committee were High  Court division justice SM Quddus Zaman, Comptroller and Auditor General  Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, Bangladesh Public Service Commission Chairman  Sohrab Hossain, former Election Commissioner Muhammad Sahul Hossain and fiction writer Professor Anwara Syed Haq.

The search committee was scheduled to finish its duties by 27 February, but it has been able to complete its duty within 24 February.