President to end talks over EC formation on Jan 17

News Desk :
President Abdul Hamid will end his discussions with the registered political parties on the formation of a new Election Commission at the Bangabhaban on Jan 17.
The ruling Awami League will be the last political party to participate in the talks.
Following the talks, a search committee will be formed. The committee will shortlist names of possible candidates for the posts of election commissioner and their chief to the president, reports bdnews24.com
President Hamid will pick from those names and form a new Election Commission, which will oversee the 12th national election in 2023.
President Hamid opened the talks on Dec 20. The Jatiya Party, the opposition party in parliament, was the first one to meet with him. The Awami League is scheduled to meet the president at the Bangabhaban at 4 pm on Jan 17.
A 10-member delegation of the Awami League, led by its chief Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is likely to go to Bangabhaban on that day.
“The Cabinet Division will perform the secretarial tasks to form a search committee and they’ll announce it,” said president’s Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin, when asked who will comprise the committee.
The process of forming a search committee may be the same as last time, said a Bangabhaban official. With a Supreme Court judge as its convener, it is likely to include a High Court judge, a chairman of the Public Service Commission and the comptroller and auditor general of Bangladesh, he said. Also, two civil society members, including a woman, may be part of the committee.
The search committee will be formed soon after the end of the talks, as the Election Commission needs to be formed before the current commission’s tenure is over, said another Bangabhaban official.
“Also, the search committee may ask the political parties to propose names for the search committee, meaning they will need time to discuss,” he said.
In the absence of a law to appoint election commissioners, the powers to appoint an election commissioner are vested in the president, according to the Constitution.