OPPOSITION REJECTS NEW CHIEF ELECTION COMMISSIONER

C O N F I D E N T I A L DHAKA 002401

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/24/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM BG BGD
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION REJECTS NEW CHIEF ELECTION COMMISSIONER

Classified By: P/E Counselor D.C. McCullough, Reason: 1.4 b


1. (U) On May 23, the BNP government appointed Justice
M.A.Aziz as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to replace M.A.
Syed whose tenure ended May 22. Aziz is the ninth Chief
Election Commissioner since independence and a member of the
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. According to media
reports, he does not have to give up his seat on the Supreme
Court while CEC. Aziz previously served in 2004 as chairman
of the leadership search committee for the Anti-Corruption
Commission.


2. (SBU) The Awami League (AL) and other opposition parties
rejected the appointment, objecting that they were not
consulted prior to the appointment. Saber Chowdhury,
Political Secretary to Shiekh Hasina, complained to us that
the AL, when it was in power, twice invited the then
opposition BNP for consultations on the selection of the CEC
but were rebuffed. Ahktar Ahktaruzzaman, Organizing
Secretary for the AL, when asked what made Justice Azziz

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unfit for the CEC, stated that Azziz "is a BNP man" who had
hosted an event where a BNP minister was invited. He said
that the AL will "not accept" him and promised there would be
unspecified action emphasizing their rejection "after some
time."


3. (U) Although there are presently two other election
commissioners in the election commission, under the 13th
Amendment to the Bangladeshi Constitution, the Chief Election
Commissioner can be the sole responsible agent of government
for the execution of elections. The Constitution does not
specify that there be other election commissioners or specify
the number of commissioners.


4. (SBU) Critics point out that the CEC and the executive
body of the CEC, the Election Commission Secretariat, need to
be independent of political influence, and that under Article
118 (4) of the Bangladeshi Constitution the CEC has sole
authority in the conduct of the elections even while it is
dependent on other ministries for much of the organizational
expertise and manpower. The AL charges that the Prime
Minister's Office will take advantage of this dependency in
the next election, and that it will call for an independent
Secretariat as part of its election reform proposals.

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Ahktaruzzaman claimed that the final election reform proposal
will be made public "the day after tomorrow."

5.(C) Comment: Aziz's appointment came as a surprise after
the presumed front-runner, World Bank alternate director Dr.
Akbar Ali Khan, told reporters he was uninterested in the
job. Aziz did not distinguish himself as chairman of the ACC
leadership search committee, which took seven months to
complete its work and came up with a weak shortlist of names,
two of which had to be dropped after negative information
surfaced about their past. Aziz, however, has his admirers
as a judge, including some within the AL, and the AL's early
rejection of his appointment centered on the lack of
consultation rather than Aziz as an individual. As the AL
labors to show that the electoral framework is hopelessly
biased against it, criticism of Aziz and his alleged BNP ties
will likely intensify.
THOMAS