Having swept to power on pledges of impartial state institutions and clean elections, the BNP government has moved in the opposite direction, making an unprecedented political grab for the Election Commission (EC) itself.
The latest round of high-level appointments cast serious doubt on the party’s electoral pledges as it assigns its loyalists to lead 12 more state agencies.
With the EC gearing up for local polls, the government appointed Md Shamsul Alam, a former member of the BNP’s own Parliamentary Constituency Delimitation Committee, as the commission’s additional secretary, making him its second-highest administrative official.
Shamsul took over charge on Sunday.
Critics, including EC officials view the move as a blatant effort to stack the constitutional body with party loyalists. Oppositions leaders warn that it severely undermines the constitutional body’s neutrality and public trust.
Shamsul’s appointment came on 23 July alongside 12 other BNP figures placed at the helm of institutions, each granted the rank and status of additional secretary. Traditionally, almost all these roles have been reserved for career civil servants.
A former official in the commission’s election management wing, Shamsul retired in 2017 as deputy secretary before entering party politics. Now he holds immense clout over the EC and the upcoming voting.
He was arrested in 2018 on charge of steeling information from the EC secretariat.
Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general and head of its media department, slammed the move as “unacceptable and irresponsible.”
“He has been appointed to the second most vital post in an institution as critical as the EC,” Zubair told TIMES of Bangladesh. “We suspect this is a clear attempt to engineer the upcoming polls.”
The EC itself appears helpless. “If the government makes the appointment, there is nothing we can do,” admitted Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud.
The controversy comes at a time when elections across union parishads, municipalities, upazila parishads, district councils, and city corporations are set to roll out from October.
Though formal party symbols have been scrapped for these contests, political machines are already operating at full throttle.
As additional secretary, Shamsul will act as a key gatekeeper. All files pass through his office before reaching the secretary, and he will attend nearly every crucial briefing. He also serves as project director for the expatriate voter project and wields substantial control over administrative transfers of election officials, sources in the EC said.
One EC insider warned that the post grants Shamsul access to highly sensitive intelligence and vast administrative leverage. “He can easily pass information back to the party he belongs to,” he told TIMES, seeking anonymity. “With influence over staff transfers, he could manipulate the setup to favour the ruling party.”
The controversial hires stand in stark contrast to the BNP’s manifesto, which promised a merit-based, transparent civil service and swore to restore voting as the sole legitimate source of state power.
Nasiruddin Patwary, chief coordinator of the National Citizen Party, openly questioned the appointment on social media, accusing BNP leadership of pre-election “engineering.”
“Can someone who was leading a political party only yesterday truly deliver a neutral election?” Patwary asked.
Shamsul not alone
Shamsul’s controversial appointment is just one piece of a much broader puzzle.
On the very same day he joined the commission, the government appointed 12 prominent BNP leaders to head up 12 major state agencies, granting every single one of them the rank and status of additional secretary.
Public administration experts warned that this kind of politicisation threatens to cripple the civil service and trigger widespread administrative chaos across state institutions.
What makes the move even more jarring is the sheer backlog of sidelined professionals currently on the state payroll.
Right now, 74 serving bureaucrats with the rank of additional secretary are sitting idle as “officers on special duty” or attached to ministries without assigned responsibilities. Additionally, 13 officers are attached with the Ministry of Public Administration and 61 to various departments with no actual work. They, however, draw full salaries and perks at the taxpayers’ expense while political figures step into their roles.
Among those handed top posts are BNP International Affairs Secretary Mohammad Rashedul Haque, who takes over as managing director of Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Ltd, and Forest and Environment Affairs Secretary Mohammad Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul, appointed chairman of the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation.
Meanwhile, Joint Religious Affairs Secretary ATM Abdul Bari Danny takes the helm at the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, Dhaka Divisional Joint Organisational Secretary Benazir Ahmed steps in at the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation, and Joint Forest and Environment Affairs Secretary Kazi Rawnakul Islam Tipu has been made Managing Director of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust.
The political takeover extends across several other key bodies as well.
Former Jubo Dal vice-president Kamruzzaman Dulal moves to the Bangladesh National Council of Social Welfare, National Executive Committee member Shamsuzzaman Suruj takes over the Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, and former Jubo Dal leader Zakir Hossain Siddiqui becomes Chairman of the Bangladesh Handloom Board.
Completing the slate of appointments, Rangpur leader Abdul Khalek has been named Chairman of the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation, while National Executive Committee member Mamun Hasan takes charge of the Bangladesh Jute Corporation.
‘Govt owes no explanation’
When pressed on why ruling party figures had been appointed to lead so many state agencies, State Minister for Public Administration Md Abdul Bari offered a blunt response, insisting the government owed no one an explanation.
“The government will not answer this to anyone,” he told TIMES, claiming the administration was well within its rights to make the appointments and advising critics to better understand the scope of executive authority. The controversial hires come at a time for the administration, which has been calling for cuts to administrative expenditure and issuing directives for minor cost-saving reforms.
According to former secretary AKM Abdul Awal Majumder, widespread infighting and political accusations among civil servants may have driven the government towards opting for party loyalists instead.
“Whenever the government appoints an official, claims spread across social media alleging the person is an Awami League or Chhatra League cadre,” he noted, suggesting that if bureaucrats continuously accuse one another, the government may consider its own trusted people to run the country.
However, Majumder warned that the state itself would ultimately suffer if these political appointees fail to govern the institutions in strict accordance with the law and established procedures.
Professor Sadik Hasan of the Department of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka pointed out that having been out of power for two decades, BNP remains deeply suspicious of officials recruited during that period. “That is likely why it is selectively placing its own people in key roles,” he observed, “ensuring it can maintain firm control over these state institutions.”
BNP leaders to helm eight city dev authorities
These latest appointments are far from an isolated incident; rather, they follow a pattern already well established by the administration.
On 10 June, the government appointed BNP leaders to chair eight city development authorities across the country.
SM Shafiqul Alam Mona, President of Khulna city BNP, took over the Khulna Development Authority, while Belayet Hossain, former Joint Convener of Chattogram North District BNP, was named chairman in Chattogram Development Authority.
Similar moves unfolded in Rajshahi, Narayanganj, and Sylhet, where local party figures Abul Kalam Azad, Mashukul Islam Rajib, and Rezaul Hasan Qayes Lodi were installed at the helm of their respective development bodies.
The strategy was mirrored across the remaining urban centres, with Rangpur city BNP Convener Shamsuzzaman Samu taking charge in Rangpur, Mymensingh North District Joint Convener Motahar Hossain heading Mymensingh, and Cumilla Metropolitan BNP President Udbatul Bari appointed to lead the Cumilla Development Authority.
