Eye-washing search committee will bring no benefit: Shamsul Huda

Former Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda on Saturday said there will be no benefit of making an eye-washing search committee in a bid to form a new Election Commission (EC).  

"Initiate a process right now for the reconstitution of a strong Election Commission on the basis of opinions of all political parties", he said while addressing a ‘public parliament’ in the city.

“The tenure of present Election Commission will expire in mid-February next. It’s essential to initiate the process of reconstitution of the EC right now if we want to form a strong one,” he said.

Debate for Democracy, a non-government organisation working on democracy, arranged the public parliamentary debate on the role of Election Commission, candidates and people to arrange a fair Election’ at the auditorium of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation.

Noting that the Election Commission was reconstituted in 2012 within a very short time, the ex-CEC said, “If we form the search committee today, publish the names of potential commissioners tomorrow and appoint them the day after tomorrow then such eye-wash search committee will bring no benefit.”

He said any election without the participation of all parties must be a problematic one. “So, reconstitute the EC on the basis of all political parties and create an environment so that all parties will participate in it. If so, the fair election will be possible and no one will have the scope to raise question about the election in case of suffering defeat.”    

Huda said now the immediate priority should be to reconstitute a strong EC with person having competence, neutrality and integrity for getting good result to some extent.

 “I strongly believe there’re many competent persons in our country, who’re eligible for Election Commissioner’s post. Unfortunately, we don’t search them,” he said.

With UNB inputs