Bangladesh's caretaker government has appointed ATM Shamsul Huda, a former civil servant, as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to replace Justice MA Aziz, who resigned from the post on Jan. 21, private television ATN Bangla reported Monday.

The government also appointed another civil servant as deputy of CEC, the television said.

There were five election commissioners in the Election Commission (EC), who resigned on Jan. 31, making the way for reform of the EC as demanded by former main opposition Awami League (AL)-led grand electoral alliance for holding a credible general elections.

The alliance alleged that the EC headed by MA Aziz was loyal to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

The EC made itself controversial as it failed to update the voters' list in line with a High Court order and instead attempted to prepare a fresh voters' list, which was largely incorrect and a large number of AL voters were dropped from the new list.

The grand alliance leaders said they would not go to the polls with such faulty voters' list and the existing team in the EC. The CEC Aziz and one of his deputy were then sent on long leave and ultimately they resigned from their posts on request of Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed.

Under the constitution, a caretaker government supervises the country's general elections. The former ruling BNP government ended its tenure on October 27 last year and handed over power to caretaker government led by President Iajuddin Ahmed.

Ahmed declared state of emergency on Jan. 11 amid growing political crisis in the country. He resigned from the post of chief advisor of caretaker government and delayed the general elections supposed to be held on Jan. 23.

The new caretaker government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed took oath on Jan. 12.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2007)