Newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal and four election commissioners took oath of office on Sunday afternoon.

Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique administered the oath at the Judges’ Lounge of the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Registrar General Md Ali Akbar moderated the function.

President Md Abdul Hamid on Saturday appointed former Senior Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the CEC as well as four others --District and Session Judge (Retd) Begum Rashida Sultana, Brig Gen (Retd) Ahsan Habib Khan, Senior Secretary (Retd) M Alamgir and Senior Secretary (Retd) Anisur Rahman as the election commissioners.

The new Election Commission, constituted for the first time under a law in line with the Constitution, will take charge of office on Monday.

The immediate past commission, headed by KM Nurul Huda, completed its five year tenure on February 14 last.  

Read: President appoints former defence secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the new CEC

Kazi Habibul Awal went on retirement as defence secretary in January, 2015.

The new election commission was also formed through a search committee as was done in case of the last two commissions in 2017 and 2012.

The search committee, headed by Justice Oabidul Hassan of the Appellate Division, proposed 10 names –two against each post— for the appointment of CEC and ECs.

President Abdul Hamid received the 10 names on Thursday last.

Earlier, the search committee sought the names for the EC’s constitution from registered political parties. But BNP and several others did not send any names.

The committee also held a series of meetings with eminent citizens, civil society representatives and media personalities in this regard.

The newly formed Kazi Habibul Awal-led Election Commission will face the challenge to conduct the 12th parliamentary elections to be held in late 2023 or early 2024.

The five-year tenure of the incumbent parliament will expire on January 28, 2024. But the general election shall be held within 90 days before the expiry of Parliament.