Its back to the pavilion for AL with the same autocratic leaders in the help. I guess nothing changes for Bangladesh.

www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=98605

The Awami League national council's decision to empower the party president and general secretary to choose leaders for 45 posts in the party's 73-member Central Working Committee runs counter to the party's constitution.

AL President Sheikh Hasina yesterday consulted with General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and a few close aides to finalise names of leaders for these posts in appraisal of their track records, especially during the state of emergency.

Formation of the new AL Central Working Committee (ALCWC), the party's central executive body, will be announced in a couple of days, sources close to Hasina said. The party chief might consider keeping most of the "reformist" leaders in the committee, they added.

According to the AL constitution, the national council, the highest forum of the party, has the power to confer any authority consistent with the constitution and declaration upon this committee, conditionally or unconditionally.

The council is authorised to elect 47 leaders to the Central Working Committee, but it re-elected only the party chief and elected the general secretary and bestowed on them the authority to choose the remaining 45 leaders.

The election commission formed ahead of the council for the poll did not even initiate the process for holding elections to those posts.

The 45 posts include 13 members of the party Presidium, 31 departmental secretaries including three joint general secretaries and seven organising secretaries, and a treasurer. The party constitution empowers the president to choose remaining 26 members of the Central Working Committee.

Legal experts said the councillors cannot delegate their voting rights to others and the AL council's decision contradicts with the party's charter, which promises to ensure security of the right to voting.

Many councillors have also expressed frustration at the party high command's refusal to hold elections to the 45 posts in Friday's council.

However, senior AL leaders Suranjit Sengupta and Abdul Matin Khasru yesterday claimed that the council's decision does not contradict the party constitution.

"The party chief has been given the power to choose her team in the central committee since there was no candidate for those posts," Suranjit, one of the councillors, told The Daily Star.

Former law minister Khasru said the council has full confidence in the party president and so empowered her to complete formation of the central committee.

He said by this the council averted rivalry and grouping within the party. "It is a long tradition of the party to elect leadership in this way for its own welfare," said Khasru, who was also a councillor.

Eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik did not agree with the AL leaders' arguments and termed the council's decision unfortunate.

"Such a decision has rendered the party constitution meaningless. However, by arranging proper election of the executive committee in accordance with the constitution, the Awami League can still re-establish its democratic credentials," Malik told The Daily Star.

Malik, a counsel of the Election Commission, observed that by empowering the party president and general secretary to choose leaders for the central body the AL seems to have gone back to the practice and tradition of pre-democratic days of the British rule when the viceroy would pick legislative councils for India.

Talking to The Daily Star on Friday at the council venue, a councillor of the Magura district unit of the AL said party leadership should have been elected to avert grievances at the grassroots level.

"The district level council might also follow the tradition of the national council, and the charter for changes will remain un-implemented," the councillor said.

A councillor of Rangpur district unit said on condition of anonymity that it was frustrating that no change was seen in electing party leaders while another from Barisal said leadership quality could be increased if election was held.

Meanwhile, sources said new faces will be seen in the posts of three joint general secretaries and seven organising secretaries while a number of dedicated leaders, mostly party lawmakers who worked for the party after the 1/11 political changeover, will be included in the central committee.

"Those who either cowered under the caretaker government or compromised with it will not be promoted," said a senior party leader.

The sources said there would be no major changes in the AL Presidium, the highest policymaking body of the party. Only the vacant positions will be filled up.

Zohra Tajuddin's post in the Presidium will be vacant as she has been physically ill for a long time and a senior AL leader will be given the post. Two more leaders will fill up the posts of late Abdus Samad Azad and President Zillur Rahman.

When contacted Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the party chief will form the fully-fledged central committee with a combination of old and new leaders.