Bangladesh holds first contested presidential poll in 35 years

Bangladesh lawmakers are voting to elect the country's 23rd president in its first contested poll for the post in 35 years. The result will test the ruling BNP's parliamentary strength and revive attention on the presidency's constitutional role.

In Short

• 349 lawmakers are casting votes through an open ballot at Parliament
• Result will be declared after counting and gazetted by Election Commission
• President-elect is scheduled to take oath at Bangabhaban on Friday

Bangladesh's presidential election began on Thursday, with lawmakers voting to choose the country's 23rd president in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years. The election pits ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, 78, against Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, 84, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance.

Voting is being held through an open ballot at the Jatiya Sangsad, with 349 lawmakers eligible to vote till 5 pm local time. The Election Commission is expected to announce the result after counting and publish it in the official gazette. The president-elect is scheduled to take oath on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban.

The election was necessitated after Mohammed Shahabuddin, a close aide of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned last month on health grounds before completing his five-year term. Under the Constitution, a new president must be elected within 90 days of the office falling vacant. Parliamentary Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad is serving as acting president, as required under the Constitution.

The president in Bangladesh is elected by Members of Parliament. This is the first contested presidential election since 1991, with the office having largely been filled through consensus and uncontested polls in recent decades. The BNP, which returned to power in the February 12 elections, has a two-thirds majority in Parliament, placing Alamgir in a strong position in the contest.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who is also the BNP chairman, nominated Alamgir, the party's longtime secretary general and a close ally of former premier Khaleda Zia, as the candidate. Speaking at the BNP parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday, Alamgir appealed to party lawmakers to support him. "If I have made any mistake or unintentionally hurt anyone during my tenure, I seek forgiveness," he said. Several lawmakers at the meeting said the veteran leader became emotional and broke down in tears several times. Alamgir also said he would never compromise on the country's independence and sovereignty.

If elected, Alamgir will become Bangladesh's 23rd president. He has been among the BNP's most prominent leaders for more than two decades, serving as acting secretary general from 2011 before formally taking over the post in 2016. He played a key role in leading the party during the imprisonment of its then chairperson Zia and the period when Rahman was abroad. An economist by training, Alamgir began his political life as a left-leaning student activist when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. After joining the BNP in the early 1990s, he served as state minister for agriculture and civil aviation. After the BNP returned to power in this year's February 12 elections, he was made local government minister.

Under Bangladesh's parliamentary system, the president is largely a ceremonial head of state, though the office carries key constitutional powers such as appointing the prime minister and the chief justice. The president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, though those powers are generally exercised on the advice of the prime minister. Political analysts said the post could assume greater significance under the caretaker government system recently reintroduced to oversee general elections, when the president's role in commanding the armed forces would expand. They also said Alamgir's nomination could be a calculated move by the BNP, which had promised in its election manifesto to give the president more powers through a constitutional amendment.

As lawmakers vote in the first contested presidential election in decades, Bangladesh is set to elect a new head of state following Shahabuddin's resignation, with Alamgir entering the contest backed by the ruling party's parliamentary strength and facing Oli Ahmed of the opposition alliance.

With PTI Inputs

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