ENTER QUADER EXIT ASHRAF

Sheikh Hasina was unanimously reelected Awami League president for the eighth straight term while Obaidul Quader was elected unopposed general secretary, replacing Syed Ashraful Islam, by the AL National Council that concluded yesterday. 

Even before being elected, the two were empowered by the councillors to choose other office bearers of the party.

In the 2009 and 2012 councils, councillors gave such power to the party supremo and her deputy only after their elections.  

Minutes after, Hasina announced the names of 14 presidium members, including seven new faces, four joint general secretaries and the treasurer. She will also choose three more presidium members and 31 secretaries, including eight organising secretaries, in consultation with the new leaders.

This practice to handpick office bearers is in conflict with the AL charter and the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 2008 -- both of which stipulate that the party office bearers should be elected by councillors.

Asked, Yusuf Hossain Humayun, head of the Election Commission formed to hold the polls, claimed that provisions in the AL charter and the RPO were not violated. "It has been the practice in the past as well."

Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, four former ministers -- Dr Abdur Razzak, Faruk Khan, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Abdul Mannan Khan -- and Jessore District AL leader Pijush Kumar Bhattacharjee are the new faces in the presidium, the party's highest policymaking body.

Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim, Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain, former health minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, former home minister Sahara Khatun and Kazi Zafrullah retained their posts in the presidium.

Nuh-Ul-Alam Lenin and Satish Chandra Roy, who were in the just-dissolved presidium, have been dropped.

The party president and the general secretary are ex-officio members of the presidium.

Abdur Rahman, who was in the immediate-past central working committee, was made joint general secretary.

Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Dipu Moni and Jahangir Kabir Nanak retained their posts as joint general secretaries.

HN Ashiqur Rahman remains the party's treasurer.

Earlier, the council approved changes in the AL constitution to increase the size of the presidium to 19 from 15. The number of joint general secretaries was also increased to four from three, organising secretaries to eight from seven and central working committee members to 28 from 26.

The party constitution empowers the president to pick the working committee members as well. The working committee is made up of the presidium members, the secretaries and the general members.  

HOW THINGS TOOK PLACE

As a political party registered with the Election Commission under the Representation of the People Order 2008, the AL must have elected leaders at every level.

The AL formed a three-member EC led by Yusuf Hossain Humayun to hold the elections.

As many as 6,570 councillors from 73 organisational district units and 490 upazila and 325 municipality units of the party were the electorates.

At yesterday's council session at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, the EC began the election process, after Hasina dissolved the previous ALCWC, party sources said.

The chief election commissioner told the councillors that they would hold elections for the posts of the president and the general secretary only.

He sought opinion of the councillors on a proposal that said the newly elected president and the general secretary will choose the party's other office bearers.

"The councillors endorsed the proposal unanimously," a councillor told The Daily Star. 

Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, deputy leader in parliament, proposed Hasina's name, which the councillors seconded.

There was no other candidate, so Hasina was reelected president for the next three years.

She has been AL president since 1981, the longest period for anyone to hold the post since the party's formation in 1949.   

Syed Ashraf proposed the name of Road Transports and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader as his successor. Jahangir Kabir Nanak supported it and the councillors endorsed it.

Quader was in the immediate past presidium and is a former president of Chhatra League. 

Born on January 1, 1952, in Noakhali, Quader studied political science at Dhaka University. He played an active role during the six-point movement in 1966. In 1971, he joined the Liberation War as commander of Companiganj Thana Mujib Force.

He was first elected a lawmaker in 1996 from Noakhali-5 and was made state minister for Youth, Sports and Cultural Affairs.

NO ALTERNATIVE

The 20th National Council of the ruling party began at Suhrawardy Udyan on Saturday.

In her introductory speech yesterday, Hasina urged councillors to elect a new chief. But the councillors cried: "No, no."

In the afternoon, she made the same call, only to receive the same response from the councillors.

"You have been electing me for the last 35 years since 1981. The party was divided when I took the responsibility. Now, the Awami League is organised and my responsibility has ended," she told the councillors.

Referring to the councillors' demand that she hold the post for life, she said it was not possible for anyone. "You have showed me great respect, and I should say goodbye with this honour still intact."