Bangladesh presidential election begins; BNP's Mirza Alamgir frontrunner

Dhaka (PTI): Bangladesh's presidential election got underway on Thursday, with lawmakers voting to elect the country's 23rd president in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years.

The voting, which will continue till 5 pm local time, is taking place in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament), with 349 lawmakers eligible to cast their ballots. The election is being conducted through an open ballot.

Ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, 78, is facing Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, 84, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chairman and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance.

The Election Commission is expected to announce the result after completion of the counting of votes and publish it in the official gazette.

The president-elect will take the oath as Bangladesh's new president on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban.

It is the first contested presidential election in Bangladesh since 1991, as the office had largely been filled through consensus and uncontested polls in recent decades.

The presidential 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 tenure.

Under the Constitution, a new president is required to be elected within 90 days of the office falling vacant.

The Election Commission subsequently announced the schedule for the election, with the voting set for August 20.

Parliamentary Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad is currently serving as acting president, as required under the Constitution following a vacancy in the office.

The president is elected by Members of Parliament under Bangladesh's constitutional system.

The BNP, which was voted to power in the February 12 elections, currently commands a two-thirds majority in Parliament, putting Alamgir in a strong position to secure the presidency.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who is also the BNP chairman, had nominated Alamgir, a longtime secretary general of the party and a close ally of former premier Khaleda Zia, as its presidential candidate.

Speaking at the BNP parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday, Alamgir appealed to the BNP lawmakers to vote for him in the election.

“If I have made any mistake or unintentionally hurt anyone during my tenure, I seek forgiveness,” said Alamgir, who has served as BNP's Senior Joint Secretary General, Acting Secretary General and Secretary General.

Several lawmakers present at the meeting said the veteran leader became emotional and broke down in tears several times.

Alamgir pledged that he would never compromise on the country's independence and sovereignty.

If elected, Alamgir will become Bangladesh's 23rd president. He has been one of the BNP's most prominent leaders for more than two decades, having served as acting secretary general from 2011 before formally taking over the post in 2016.

He played a prominent role in leading the BNP during the imprisonment of its then-chairperson and former prime minister Zia and the absence of Rahman, who was abroad at the time.

The president is largely a ceremonial head of state under Bangladesh's parliamentary system, with key constitutional powers, including appointing the prime minister and the chief justice.

Though the president is the supreme commander of the armed forces, those powers are generally exercised on the advice of the prime minister.

Political analysts, however, said the presidency could assume greater significance under the caretaker government system recently reintroduced to oversee general elections, when the president's power would increase significantly in commanding the armed forces during such a period.

The analysts also opine that Alamgir's nomination could be a well-calculated move of BNP, which in its election manifesto had promised to equip the president with more power by amending the Constitution.

An economist by training, Alamgir made his political debut as a left-leaning student activist when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. Bangladesh was liberated from Pakistan with India's help in 1971.

After joining the BNP in the early 90s, Alamgir served as state minister for agriculture and civil aviation.

When the BNP returned to power in the February 12 elections this year, Alamgir was made the local government minister.