Search committee, scrutiny in JS to appoint CEC, commissioners
The Election Commission has proposed to curtail the government’s unilateral power to appoint people of its choice as chief election commissioner and election commissioners.
To make the EC widely acceptable, the EC drafted proposal for enacting a law under article-118 of the constitution. It will also seek opinions of political parties, civil society, and different professional bodies during electoral reforms talks beginning on June 7, and the invitees to the talks are getting copies of the draft.
On the formation of the EC, the article-118 (1) constitution says, “… the appointment of the CEC and other election commissioners (if any) shall, subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf, be made by the President.”
But the law has not been formulated since the constitution was framed in 1972.
In absence of the law, successive governments appointed people as per their choices as CEC and other election commissioners triggering political controversy.
The EC-proposed legislation gives details on the procedure of an appointment. It suggests introduction of a strong search committee to find sound people and parliamentary scrutiny of those people recommended by the search committee for posts to the EC.
“The future appointments will be better if the law can be made, specifying a set of criteria for the appointments,” Election Commissioner Sohul Husein told The Daily Star recently.
He said there is no alternative to making the EC widely acceptable to all by appointing non-controversial persons to the constitutional body for holding free and fair elections.
Formation of the EC has recently become crucial after the Supreme Court declared the caretaker government system illegal and void.
Besides, tenure of the current EC will expire in February, 2012, and a new EC will be constituted that will hold the parliamentary elections in early 2014.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference Tuesday said her government would take steps to make the EC stronger.
Some members of the parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment at a meeting with the prime minister Monday also spoke for strengthening the EC.
A member of the special committee told The Daily Star that they may propose specifying the number of EC members to three and recommend enactment of a law under article-118.
He said they will discuss in a meeting tomorrow how to strengthen the EC with financial autonomy.
The Daily Star got a copy of the EC-proposed law titled “Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner (appointment procedure) Act, 2011”.
According to the proposal, a five-member search committee will be formed with the chief election commissioner (CEC), as its convener, to prepare a list of people for appointment to the EC.
A judge, nominated by the chief justice; the chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), chief of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the comptroller and auditor general will be members of the search committee.
The search committee will recommend three names for each position.
The 15-member Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of parliament, led by the speaker, will then finalise the list after scrutiny and the president will appoint CEC and other election commissioners from the list.
The EC believes, with the proposals made into law, political consensus on appointments can be achieved as the prime minister, leader of the opposition in parliament and senior leaders of the ruling and opposition parties are members of the BAC.
In absence of the law, there is no qualification or disqualification criteria for individuals to be appointed as CEC or election commissioners.
On the advice of the prime minister, the president is constitutionally empowered to appoint anybody as CEC or as election commissioners.
The proposed legislation comes with some qualifications required for the candidates and some disqualifications criteria.
People with administrative efficiency, honesty and integrity will be considered competent for the posts to the EC.
Individuals should be disqualified if they were not considered honest, not earning legally, member of any national or local political party or a party’s associate body, or if they had interest in contesting the general elections with the backing of any political party, the proposed legislation said.
The draft law also disqualifies candidates who are loan defaulters, as borrowers, company directors or partners of a defaulting company.
It also proposed to specify the number of members of the EC to three. According to the proposed law, the EC would consist of a CEC and two election commissioners including one woman election commissioner.
Currently, the president is empowered to appoint unlimited number of election commissioners.
The EC earlier sent a similar proposal to the last military-backed caretaker government in early 2008. But the interim government did not pay heed to it.
Source : The Daily Star
