Former parliament secretary Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed has been appointed as the chief election commissioner.
The Cabinet Division will issue a gazette notification in this regard later in the day.
The president has also appointed Mohammad Abu Hafiz, a former additional secretary, Mohammad Abdul Mobarrak, a former joint secretary, Brigadier General (retd) Md Zabed Ali and Md Shahnawaz, a former district and sessions judge, as the election commissioners.
President Zillur Rahman picked the new CEC and the four election commissioners a day after the Search Committee, which has been formed to suggest names for the new Election Commission, placed its recommendation to him.
The committee recommended former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder and Rakib Uddin Ahmed for appointment as the CEC as ATM Shamsul Huda retired on February 6.
Election Commissioner Sohul Hussain retired on February 6 while another commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain will retire on February 14.
The committee also proposed eight names for the posts of four commissioners.
Following his dialogue with the political parties on the formation of the new Election Commission, the president on January 22 constituted the committee seeking recommendations for the posts.
Supreme Court judge Syed Mahmud Hossain has been made chief of the committee.
The ruling Awami League and five other parties sent names to the committee. But the main opposition BNP and the AL's key ally Jatiya Party and 16 other parties did not send any names.
Rejecting the four-member committee, the BNP demanded a restoration of the caretaker government first.
The three other members of the Search Committee were High Court judge Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Public Service Commission Chairman ATM Ahmedul Haque Chowdhury and Comptroller and Auditor General Ahmed Ataul Hakeem.
BACKGROUNDS
Rakib Uddin Ahmed was parliament secretary in the previous BNP-Jamaat coalition government till 2003.
Prior to that, he was education secretary in 2000. Earlier, he served as secretary of information and primary and mass education in the last AL government.
Also a freedom fighter, he was a zonal coordinating officer of the freedom fighters who took shelter in Agartala, India, during the 1971 Liberation War.
After the war, Ahmed served as deputy commissioner of Comilla and later became director general of the NGO Affairs Bureau.
