BANGLADESH

The search committee, formed to suggest names for election commissioners, submitted their recommendations to president Mohammad Zillur Rahman on Tuesday.

The recommendations were handed in around 6:30pm to at Bangabhaban.

Following a meeting of the committee earlier in the day at the Supreme Court Judges' Lounge, cabinet secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told journalists around 6:10pm: "We have finalised the recommendations. Now we are going to the president with the names."

Asked who names have been proposed, he said, " You will get to know about that there (in president's office)."

The Cabinet Division provided secretarial support to the panel headed by the Appellate Division's justice Syed Mahmud Hossain. The other members of the committee are High Court Division justice Md Nuruzzaman, Public Service Commission chairman AT Ahmedul Haque Chowdhury and comptroller and auditor general Ahmed Ataul Hakim.

The committee is to propose two names against each vacant post of election commissioners, including the chief of the constitutional body to the president who will have the final say as per constitutional provisions.

It received the names from political parties until last Tuesday. Ruling Awami League, Workers' Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal had sent names to the committee. But Jatiya Party, a key component of the ruling alliance, suggested no names.

The BNP-led four-party alliance snubbed the committee, calling it unconstitutional.

The president on Jan 22 formed the search committee, following a series of dialogues with political parties having representation in parliament, to reconstitute the commission.

The tenure of the incumbent commission ends in the middle of this month.