"I would have resigned from the post after the court's verdict, if I were the chief election commissioner. I would have quit with self-respect," Oli said in an interview with a private satellite television channel.

The ruling BNP senior leader, who left Dhaka yesterday for a month-long visit to the UK and USA, spoke out at a time when the senior ministers claimed that the CEC has not done anything to call for his resignation.

Meanwhile, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday reiterated the demand for immediate removal of CEC MA Aziz and two election commissioners. She also demanded a fresh Election Commission formed through consultation with all the political parties.

The CEC had continued the task for preparing the fresh voter list ignoring the High Court's (HC) directives for revising the existing list. The Supreme Court on May 23 upheld the HC directives.

The EC will now have to revise the existing voter list, but it has yet to decide about the next course of action as it showed the excuse that it has not received the certified copy of the judgment.

Meanwhile, the AL-led 14 party opposition combine has declared that it will not recognise revision of the voter list under CEC MA Aziz.

Aziz has, however, rejected the opposition's demand for resignation.

In the interview, Oli, also a former minister, criticised the government for only removing the ministers for their failure without initiating any probe into their alleged corruption. "Such efforts will not bring any positive result unless probe is launched against the alleged corruption."