The new Election Commission

CEC KM Nurul Huda

Hailing from Patuakhali, the 12th chief election commissioner (CEC) K M Nurul Huda is a former bureaucrat. Huda, a 1973 batch officer of Bangladesh Civil Service, served as chief chief executive officer at the undivided Dhaka City Corporation. He was the joint secretary at environment and forests ministry and additional secretary at parliament secretariat. In his decades-long career in public service, Huda was deputy commissioner of Comilla and Faridpur, and an additional deputy commissioner of Jessore. Huda, also a freedom fighter, retired from service in 2006 after he was made an officer on special duty during the BNP-led four-party alliance government. Later, he moved court and was given with the status of a secretary following a Supreme Court order in 2008. He was made secretary with retrospective effect after the Awami League came to the state power in 2009. Huda worked as director (administration and human resources) for Gemcon Ltd, chairman of North West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd, and managing director of Bangladesh Municipal Development Fund.

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Commissioner Mahbub Talukder

Born in Netrokona, former additional secretary Mahbub Talukder was recommended a election commissioner by BNP. Mahbub, also a war hero, was a teacher at the Chittagong University in 1971 and joined as a deputy secretary at Bangabhaban the next year. Experienced in working with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and President Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, the ex-bureaucrat penned eight novels and 40 story books and had received Bangla Academy award for children's literature.

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Commissioner Rafiqul Islam

Election Commissioner Rafiqul Islam is also a former secretary who joined public service as a BCS officer of 1982 batch. Before his retire in 2013, Rafiqul worked as additional secretary at the EC secretariat and secretary of science and technology ministry.

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Commissioner Kabita Khanam

Retired district and sessions judge Kabita Khanom is the first ever woman election commissioner of the country. The ruling Awami League recommended her for the post to the search panel. Born in Naogaon district in 1957, Kabita secured her LLB degree from Rajshahi University. She had her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science , both in Zoology, from the same university. Kabita began her career with Munsef Court in Rajshahi in February 1984 as a BCS judicial cadre official and was made the joint district judge in 1994 and additional district judge in 2000. She was promoted as a district judge in October 2006, serving as district and sessions judge in Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi. Widow of the the chief metropolitan magistrate of Rajshahi, Kabita retired in 2013 as Rajshahi District and Sessions Judge. Her son is an officer of the Bangladesh Army and daughter is a doctor.

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Commissioner Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury

Retired Brigadier General Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury joined at Bangladesh Army way back in 1982. Shahadat, who was born in Noakhali in 1959, graduated from Chittagong College in 1976. After 28 years of service, he left Bangladesh Army in 2010. With experience in election projects, the former military official served as project director in Afghanistan Election Project. He was the project director of “Preparation of Electoral Roll with Photographs and Facilitating the Issuance of National Identity Cards” during the tenure of the last caretaker government. With a wife and two offspring, the retired brigadier general also served at United Nations Development Programme.