The Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Thursday allowed the police to take former chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal in their custody for interrogation for three days in a case filed over irregularities and biased roles in conducting the last three national elections.
The court of Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate Mohammad Mustafizur Rahman passed the order after hearing a police petition seeking the court鈥檚 permission to take the former CEC in their custody for 10 days for interrogation in the case.
Habibul Awal, who was arrested by the police on Wednesday at Moghbazar in Dhaka in the case filed by a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police on Sunday, was produced before the court during the hearing.
The former CEC told the court that the 2024 national election was a 鈥榙ummy and farcical exercise鈥�.
The case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police accused ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, three former chief election commissioners and 20 others for their roles in three controversial national elections held in 2014, 2018 and 2024.
Awal told the court that the lack of consensus among political parties led to the dummy election in 2024.
Highlighting the helplessness of the Election Commission, he said that the election would not be fair even in a thousand years unless some fundamental reforms were made.
As the court asked him why he had not resigned, Awal said that it was not possible to resign in that situation and he would not have taken the post if someone warned him earlier that such a disastrous election was coming.
Awal further told the court, 鈥楴o election can be called free from controversy. Even after the country鈥檚 independence, in 1973, people were not allowed to submit nomination papers by blocking roads. Even Sheikh Mujib could not prevent his greed for power. The election then was not fair also.鈥�
During the Awami League regime, retired secretary Kazi Habibul Awal was appointed the CEC on February 26, 2022.
Habibul Awal, who served as law secretary and religious affairs secretary, joined the Ministry of Defence as secretary in March 2014. He retired as a senior secretary to the government in January 2015.
On June 22, another former CEC, KM Nurul Huda, was arrested at the capital鈥檚 Uttara, hours after filing the case. He is now in police custody on a four-day remand.
Nurul Huda, a freedom fighter, faced humiliation by a mob on Sunday just before and during his arrest, which was condemned by different rights groups and political parties.
