Forty-two eminent citizens have written to the president for the second time, reiterating the demand for constituting Supreme Judicial Council to probe allegations of "serious financial corruption and gross election-related misconduct" against the Election Commission.

The distinguished citizens sought to meet President Abdul Hamid so that they can brief him about the allegations face-to-face, jurist Shahdeen Malik said in a statement yesterday on behalf of the citizens.

They also attached to their second letter, sent to the president on January 17, copies of media reports on irregularities at the EC, the statement mentioned.

Those include a report of The Daily Star which said the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) detected financial anomalies in the EC's expenditure on paying many of its trainers ahead of the last parliamentary polls and upazila elections.

Earlier on December 14, the noted citizens sent a letter to the president, calling for constitution of Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to probe allegations of "serious financial corruption and gross election-related misconduct" against the current EC under Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.

In the second letter, they cited a media report that some of the EC officials had embezzled at least Tk 11 crore from the training budget.

The report also mentioned about allegations against 18 people, including the CEC, commissioners and top EC officials, that they took at least Tk 3 crore of the Tk 11 crore.

In the letter, the distinguished citizens said the EC was created as a constitutional body so that it can act independently without any bias.

The EC's constitutional duty is to hold free, fair and acceptable elections.

Arranging and giving training to election-related officials is part of the routine duty of election commissioners and EC officials, and for that they get salaries and allowances from the public exchequer, the statement said.

It is an extremely corrupt and heinous deed to take crores of taxpayers' money by creating posts besides the official ones through abuse of power. There have been media reports about the CAG's audit objections regarding this, read the statement.

"In legal terms, taking money twice for the same work is called double dipping. This is unjust, unethical and a serious financial misconduct."

It further mentioned that a smokescreen has been apparently created over constitution of SJC though the Supreme Court in its verdict on the cancellation of 16th amendment to the constitution said: "The decisions of the apex court of the country are final not because they are infallible, but because the decisions are infallible as they are constitutionally final. By the impugned amendment, the removal mechanism of the judges of higher judiciary by the Supreme Judicial Council has been substituted by the parliamentary removal mechanism.

"Since this amendment in [sic] ultra vires the constitution, the provision prevailing before substitution is restored. The appeal is accordingly dismissed."

The statement also said it is clear through the verdict that SJC is still valid, and the SC has not stayed its verdict that restored SJC.

In yesterday's statement, the eminent citizens said SJC can properly probe the allegations as it can seek evidence, necessary files, record and documents from the EC and other officials.

In their first letter, they said members of the EC under KM Nurul Huda's leadership had indulged in misconduct and irregularities, including that of Tk 2 crore for delivering speeches as "special speakers" at training programmes ahead of the 11th national election and fifth upazila elections.

In response, the CEC on December 24 said the allegations of spending Tk 2 crore on special speakers at training sessions ahead of elections were made on false grounds.

Nurul claimed that the allocation for special speakers for the 11th national election was Tk 1.04 crore and for the fifth upazila election the amount was Tk 47.70 lakh.

According to the rules and regulations, all expenditures were subject to audit and if the audit objections were not settled, all unspent money would be returned to the public exchequer, he mentioned.

"There is no scope for financial irregularities," he said.

The 42 eminent citizens are: Prof Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury of Dhaka University; M Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government; Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government; Sultana Kamal, human rights activist; Rasheda K Choudhury, former adviser to a caretaker government; Hameeda Hossain, human rights activist; Ali Imam Majumder, former cabinet secretary; Prof Moinul Islam, economist; Khushi Kabir, human rights activist; Prof Perween Hasan, vice chancellor at the Central Women's University; Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik; Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh; Prof Ahmed Kamal, former DU teacher; Tofail Ahmed, local government expert; ZI Khan Panna, Supreme Court lawyer; Shahdeen Malik, jurist; Shahidul Alam, photographer; Prof Anu Muhammad, economist; Ahsan H Mansur, economist; Abdul Latif Mandal, former bureaucrat; Mubashir Hasan, architect; Shamsul Huda, executive director of Association for Land Reform and Development; Prof CR Abrar, international relations expert; Barrister Sara Hossain, SC lawyer; Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association; Prof Asif Nazrul of DU; Prof Rahnuma Ahmed, writer; Lubna Mariam, artistic director of Shadhona; Prof Akmal Hossain, former DU teacher; Prof Shapan Adnan, researcher; Sharmeen Murshid, chief executive officer of Brotee; Prof Geeti Ara Nasreen of DU; Prof Firdous Azim of Brac University; Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed, former banker; Abu Sayeed Khan, senior journalist; Prof Robayet Ferdous of DU; Prof Shahnaz Huda of DU; Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, SC lawyer; Prof Naila Zaman, director at Clinical Neuroscience Centre, Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation; Zakir Hossain, chief executive of Nagorik Udyog; and Nur Khan Liton, human rights activist.