President and Chief Adviser to the caretaker government Iajuddin Ahmed assured the Awami League-led 14-party alliance on Monday that he will think about their demand for reconstituting the EC after appointing the 10 advisers in his new interim government.

Talking to The Daily Star, electoral experts yesterday urged the president to ask the chief election commissioner (CEC) and three other election commissioners to resign soon. Then the EC can be reconstituted with neutral and efficient persons, they said.

They, however, suggested that the sitting EC members themselves should resign before the president asks them to do so.

Meanwhile, CEC MA Aziz yesterday told reporters that he does not have any other thought at this moment other than holding the next parliamentary elections and that the president has asked him to make all-out preparations to that end.

”Nobody has confidence in the present Election Commission which is mired in an unprecedented controversy. The only way to gain people's confidence in the Election Commission is to reconstitute it as soon as possible," former adviser to caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan told The Daily Star yesterday.

Echoing the view, another former caretaker government adviser, ASM Shajahan, said the present EC should be reconstituted as it had been before the parliamentary elections in 1991 and 1996.

"The first step of the caretaker government is to reconstitute the Election Commission without any delay. In case of any delay, political violence may erupt again," he said. "Besides, the Election Commission will have to complete a massive task for holding the next parliamentary elections, but time is running out."

Former CEC Abu Hena said the current CEC and the three election commissioners should respect public sentiment.

MA Aziz, who was appointed the CEC on May 23 last year, gave rise to enormous controversy, particularly by preparing a fresh voter list ignoring High Court directives and opinions of two then election commissioners.

The government in a hurried move in January last year appointed Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and SM Zakaria as election commissioners and from the outset the two supported the CEC's controversial initiative. The fresh voter list ultimately caused wastage of over Tk 40 crore as it was finally declared void by the Appellate Division.

The EC then updated the existing voter list in accordance with the High Court directives, but the accuracy of the updated list has also been questioned as the procedure followed for the task was controversial.

The government then appointed Hasan Mahmud Mansur as the third election commissioner last August.

The 14-party alliance has since demanded removal of the CEC and the three election commissioners.

The alliance said on Monday that it would announce its next course of agitation programmes if the chief adviser fails to initiate any steps in this regard within November 3.

The newly formed Liberal Democratic Party at a meeting with the president yesterday also asked him to initiate urgent steps to reconstitute the EC.

THE WAY EC CAN BE RECONSTITUTED
Referring to the constitutional provisions, legal experts said the president can informally ask the CEC and three other election commissioners to resign.

If they do not follow, the president can refer the matter to the Supreme Judicial Council for inquiry. If the council reports to the president that the EC members have ceased to be capable of properly performing the functions of their office or been guilty of gross misconduct, the president shall order removal of the members.

Before the 1991 parliamentary elections, the then CEC Justice Sultan Hossain Khan resigned from his post following severe opposition from major political parties.

Former CEC Justice AKM Sadek, who conducted the February 15 parliamentary elections in 1996, also resigned from his post upon request of the then caretaker government adviser Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed.