Brigadier General Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, afwc, psc, te (Retd) was sworn in on February 15, 2017 as an Election Commissioner of Bangladesh Election Commission. Before joining as Election Commissioner, he served Bangladesh Army for twenty-eight years. He was commissioned in 1982 in the Corps of Signals. During his service in Bangladesh Army, he held various command, staff and instructional assignments. He had also served erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), on deputation, in the capacity of Sector Commander in Chittagong and Dinajpur sectors. He took part in UN Peace Keeping Missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

He served Bangladesh Election Commission from 2007- June 2010 as National Project Director of ‘Preparation of Electoral Roll with Photographs and Issuance of National Identity Card’ project – a flagship project which electronically captured demographic and biometric information of eighty-two million voters in less than eighteen months and prepared the most credible voter roll with photographs for the first time in the history of Bangladesh.

He retired from Bangladesh Army in June 2010 and then joined UNDP in Afghanistan as Project Coordination Advisor of ‘Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow’ (ELECT) Project of Independent Election commission (IEC), Afghanistan. During his assignment in Afghanistan, he was involved with the voters’ registration and management and conduct of Afghanistan’s Parliamentary Election in 2010. He went through various workshops and seminars in different countries on electoral cooperation between Election Management Bodies. He observed ‘Constituent Assembly Election’ of Nepal in 2008 and also elections in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

He attained his B.Sc. degree under Chittagong University and obtained first class with distinction in Mathematics. He obtained his Telecommunication Engineering (te) degree from Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE) under Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India. Later on he graduated from Defence Services Command & Staff College. He attained Armed Forces War Course (afwc) from National Defence College, Bangladesh. He obtained his Masters of Defense Studies in 2004 and Masters of War Studies in 2007.

Brig Gen Shahadat is the son of Late Ferdous Ara Begum and Late Ali Imam Chowdhury, a valiant freedom fighter during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. He is the second among his five siblings. He and his wife Mrs. Sarwat Chowdhury have two children, a son and a daughter. Brig Gen Shahadat enjoys playing golf, swimming, reading books and spending time with his family during his leisure time.