Dhaka: The search committee, formed by the President, on Thursday sat in a meeting to review the names proposed by 25 political parties to appoint new election commissioners.

All the six members of the committee, led by Supreme Court's Appellate Division judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, joined the meeting that began around 5pm at the SC Judges' Lounge.

Earlier on Tuesday, the search body shortlisted 20 people examining 125 names proposed by 25 political parties to reconstitute the Election Commission (EC).
Sources at the Cabinet Division, which is assisting the committee to accomplish its task, said the meeting will further assess their shortlisted names before proposing 10 to the President to constitute the new EC. 

The search panel is expected to propose 10 names to the President by February 8 for forming the new Election Commission (EC), and the President will appoint no more than five persons to the EC from the names to be proposed by the search committee.

Twenty-seven political parties, out of 31, submitted letters to the Cabinet Division responding to the search committee's call for sending names to it for reconstituting the EC.

Four political parties -- Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, Gono Forum, Islami Andolon Bangladesh and Bangladesh Khilafat Majlish -- did not submit any letter though they were invited to propose names for the new EC.