Nasim Zaidi to be new chief election commissioner

Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi was on Thursday appointed as the next chief election commissioner.

President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared his appointment, a law ministry statement said.   He will assume charge with effect from April 19, after the incumbent Hari Shankar Brahma demits office on April 18 upon his retirement.

Zaidi will have a tenure up to July, 2017 when he attains the age of 65. In appointing Zaidi as the CEC, government has carried on with the convention of elevating the senior-most EC.

Incidentally, he will be the only one left in the three-member constitutional body as the others have retired. The government will also soon set in motion the process of appointing two election commissioners to fill up the vacancies in the three-member poll body.

The government is yet to appoint an EC after V S Sampath retired as CEC in January and Brahma was elevated in his place. An EC or a CEC has a tenure of six years in office or 65 years of age, whichever is earlier.

A 1976 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, Zaidi has worked in the civil aviation ministry for a long time.