Law minister Anisul Haque on Sunday placed the draft bill to appoint the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners in accordance with the recommendation from a search committee placed in Jatiya Sangsad.
Later, the bill was sent to the standing committee on ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs.
The committee was asked to scrutinise the bill within seven days.
Earlier on January 17, the cabinet approved a draft bill.
The Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division placed the draft bill titled ‘The Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners Appointment Bill 2022’, proposing the formation of a search committee led by an Appellate Division judge and comprising a High Court Division judge, the comptroller and auditor general, the Public Service Commission chairman and two eminent citizens, nominated by the president, as its members to find suitable persons for appointment as CEC and ECs.
The AD judge and the HC judge will be nominated by the chief justice.
The cabinet has approved the draft bill, having a provision for a six-member search committee to find suitable candidates for the CEC and the election commissioners in keeping with Article 118 of the constitution, cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told a press briefing at the secretariat on the day.
He said that the proposed law would have retrospective effect with the section that all the Election Commissions constituted in the past would be deemed to have been formed under the new law.
The government move came in the wake of a demand from major political parties and civil society organisations for the enactment of a law on the formation of the Election Commission as successive governments in the past 50 years of the country’s independence have framed no law for the purpose.
