Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir elected Bangladesh’s 23rd President

Dhaka: BNP candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected as the 23rd President of Bangladesh on Thursday after defeating Oli Ahmed, the candidate backed by Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance, local media reported.

Fakhrul secured 255 votes, while Ahmed could manage only 88 of the 343 valid votes cast in the presidential election held on Thursday afternoon in the national Parliament under the supervision of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Returning Officer A M M Nasir Uddin.

The new President is scheduled to take the oath of office at Bangabhaban on Friday, according to the Chief Whip.

Announcing the result, the CEC said, “Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected to the post of President properly as he got the highest votes,” the CEC said, Bangladeshi media outlet UNB reported.

Reports suggest that among the 349 eligible voters, six lawmakers did not cast their ballots in the presidential election.

Those who did not vote include BNP lawmakers Mirza Abbas and Mostafa Kamal Pasha, independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana, Jamaat lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam and Islami Andolan Bangladesh lawmaker Oli Ullah.

The presidential election marks the first “ballot battle” in more than three and a half decades, breaking the longstanding practice of electing Presidents unopposed, a trend that continued since 1991.

The last presidential election decided through voting in Parliament was on October 8, 1991.

Following the resignation of Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin on July 24, Speaker of the National Parliament Hafiz Uddin Ahmed was serving as the country’s acting President. Under the Constitution of Bangladesh, the election of a new President must be held within 90 days of the office falling vacant.

For over 15 years, Fakhrul served as BNP’s effective “number two”, becoming the party’s longest-serving Secretary General and one of its most prominent public faces.

During BNP’s turbulent period, when Tarique Rahman was in exile in London and his mother and former BNP chief Khaleda Zia faced imprisonment, house arrest, or battled prolonged illness, Fakhrul emerged as the senior leader physically present in Bangladesh. He remained in contact with party workers on the ground and helped execute party decisions into action, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Daily Star reported.

Fakhrul’s presidency assumes added significance amid the proposed changes agreed upon by political parties under the July Charter.

The charter seeks to create a balance of power between the President and the Prime Minister by amending provisions in the country’s constitution and granting the president greater independence in making appointments to a few posts, including those to the National Human Rights Commission and the Information Commission.

IANS