Chief Election Commission Kazi Habibul Awal on Thursday announced the resignation of the five-member commission.

The CEC made the announcement at a press conference in the Nirbachon Bhaban this noon a month after the fall of the Awami League government in the face of a student-led mass upsurge. The EC was formed during the AL regime.

“In this changed situation, I and other commissioners have decided to step down. We’re handing over our resignation letters to the EC Secretary to send it to the President,” said the CEC.

The EC led by Habibul Awal broke silence for the first time since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted on August 5. It didn’t take any initiative to conduct any local body election in the last one month.

However, the CEC wrote an article in a Bengali daily on August 24 claiming that the Election Commission is in a crisis amid the successful post-revolution constitutional situation.

The current commission drew strong criticism from various quarters including BNP and other political parties for holding the lopsided general election on January 7, 2024, which created the way for Awami League to go to power for the fourth consecutive term.

Different local body elections held under his commission were also questioned by different political parties.

On February 27, 2022, former secretary Kazi Habibul Awal took the charge of the Chief Election Commissioner, while four others -- former district and sessions judge Rashida Sultana, Brig Gen (retd) Md Ahsan Habib Khan, and former secretaries Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman, took the charges as election commissioners.

The current commission was constituted through a search committee for the first time under a law mandated by the constitution. The search committee held a series of meetings with eminent citizens and civil society representatives and sought names from the registered political parties for the posts.

A number of political parties including Awami League gave the names, but BNP and some other political parties didn’t send any name to the search committee.