President Hamid to hold dialogue with parties on new election panel

In a major political development, President Abdul Hamid has decided to hold dialogue with all registered political parties to reconstitute the election commission (EC).
“As per Article 118 of the constitution, the president will hold dialogue with registered political parties before appointing the chief election commissioner (CEC) and commissioners. The dialogue will begin after December 16,” president’s press secretary Joynal Abedin told newsmen yesterday.
However, a source at the President’s Secretariat said the dialogue will begin on December 18 with BNP.
There are 40 registered political parties now in the country.
In 2012, then president Zillur Rahman appointed the present CEC Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad to lead the five-member EC through a search committee after holding meetings with political parties.
The tenure of current EC expires in February next. The new EC will conduct the next general election scheduled to be held in 2019.
On November 18, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia placed a 13-point proposal for forming the new EC and called for reconstituting the EC in consultation with representatives of all registered political parties or with representatives of all political parties who over different periods had representation in the national parliament.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a conference on December 3 said, “She (Khaleda) has made her proposal; now she can tell the president about it, and he’ll make the decision. We’ve nothing to say ... according to the rules, the president will consider their proposal.”
Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday submitted a 13-point proposal on constituting a stronger EC to the President’s Secretariat for consideration.
A two-member BNP delegation, comprising vice chairman Ruhul Alam Chowdhury and senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, took a copy of Khaleda’s proposals and a letter of the party seeking the president’s appointment to the presidential place at around 11am.
Brigadier General Mainur Rahman, assistant military secretary to the president, received the proposal paper and the letter on behalf of the president who left for Singapore at around 10:30 am for a medical check-up there.
President’s aide Mahmudul Hasan said, “The BNP delegation handed over a copy of their proposals on election commission formation and a letter signed by the party secretary general to the president’s assistant military secretary.”
President Hamid will hold dialogue gradually with political parties on the EC formation after his return from Singapore. The president is likely to return on December 11.
Emerging from the President’s Secretariat, Rizvi said the BNP hopes that the president as the guardian of the state will take effective steps to form an acceptable EC as per hopes and aspirations of people.