Bangladesh's President Md Zillur Rahman Wednesday constituted new election commission with a former secretary as its chief but the country's main opposition party rejected.

"Kazi Raqib Uddin Ahmed, who retired in 2003 as the country's education secretary, will head the new Election Commission," a Cabinet Divsion official told Xinhua.

The official who preferred to be unnamed said president also appointed four new election commissioners who are Mohammad Abu Hafiz, former additional secretary, Mohammad Abdul Mobarak, former joint secretary, Md Jabed Ali, Brigadier General (retd.), and Md Shahnewaz, former district and sessions judge.

The appointments come after a search committee submitted its recommendations to president Rahman Tuesday.

The four-member search committee, which was constituted on Jan. 22 following a series of dialogues with political parties, received the names from the parties until last Tuesday.

Bangladeshi president started dialogue with the country's 24 political parties from Dec. 22 last year to form the next Election Commission under a political consensus as tenure of the current commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner, A T M Shamsul Huda, is to expire in the middle of this month.

During the dialogue, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling party Bangladesh Awami League (AL) welcomed the president's proposal for the formation of search committee to appoint election commissioners, terming it positive in strengthening democratic practice.

But former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) readily in the dialogue rejected the proposal for the formation of the search committee.

In an immediate reaction, acting BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Wednesday told reporters that the party has rejected the appointments as the process of constituting new election commission was unconstitutional and unlawful. "We won't join poll supervised by the new commission."

The ruling party General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam had earlier said, "According to the Constitution, the President reserves the unique right to appoint the Election Commission."

The Election Commission in Bangladash is an independent constitutional body that operates the legal functions of election law.

Bangladesh's main opposition party says it wants initiatives for restoration of a non-party caretaker government provision before the formation of the Election Commission.

Bangladesh Parliament on June 30 last year passed the 15th Constitution Amendment Bill, bringing a series of changes, including repeal of the provision for holding national elections under the non-party caretaker government which means that Hasina's incumbent AL-led government will stay in power during the next parliamentary elections slated for early 2014.

BNP and its allies, including key Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, called on a series of strikes to protest against the annulment of the caretaker government system.

Since 1996, in the South Asian country, which has a history of frequent electoral fraud and violence, the caretaker government has held elections in 1996, 2001 and 2008, which were recognized as free and fair by local and international observers.