Kazi Habibul Awal named new CEC

President Md Abdul Hamid has selected Kazi Habibul Awal, the former senior secretary of defence, to head the next election commission as chief election commissioner (CEC).

The appointment of the chief election commissioner was announced two separate gazette notifications issued on Saturday, report bdnews24.com and BSS.

The president also appointed a former judge, two former civil servants and a retired military officer as election commissioners (ECs).

The four ECs are former District and Sessions Judge Begum Rashida Sultana, Brigadier General (Rtd.) Ahsan Habib Khan and former senior secretaries Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman.

"The president today appointed the CEC and the four ECs as per the power bestowed upon him as per the Article 118(1) of the Constitution of Bangladesh," said two separate gazette notifications issued over the reconstitution of the EC.

President Hamid appointed the CEC and the ECs from the recommended list of 10 names submitted by the Search Committee, which was constituted on February 5 as per the newly enacted 'Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Appointment Act 2022'.

The tenure of the immediate past election commission led by CEC KM Nurul Huda expired on February 14.

New election commissioners (clockwise from top left) Rashida Sultana Emily, Ahsan Habib Khan, Anisur Rahman and Md Alamgir.

According to bdnews24.com, Kazi Habibul Awal was born on Jan 21, 1956, and obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in law from Dhaka University.

He enrolled in the Bangladesh Bar Council as an advocate in 1980 and joined the Dhaka District Bar Association.

Awal qualified for the judicial service after passing the Bangladesh Civil Service (Judicial) Competitive Examination in 1980 and was appointed as an assistant judge in 1981. In 1997, he was promoted to the post of district and sessions judge.

He has worked as secretary to the Bangladesh Law Commission, a chairman of the Labour Court and project director of the Bangladesh Legal and Judicial Capacity Building Project. He has also worked in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and was eventually appointed its secretary in 2007.

Awal later held posts as secretary in the Ministry of Religious Affairs in 2010 and secretary in the Ministry of Defence in 2014. He was appointed as a senior secretary to the same ministry in December of that year. He retired in 2015.