Veteran Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been elected as the 23rd president of Bangladesh.
While usually presidents in Bangladesh have been elected through a consensus, this was the first presidential election in 35 years that saw an election with the Jamaat also putting up a candidate.
Former Chief Advisor of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, congratulated Alamgir on his election as the 23rd president of Bangladesh.
Alamgir won the presidential election, defeating his lone rival, opposition Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party contender Col (Retd) Oli Ahmad, by a huge margin, Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS) reported.
He obtained 255 votes while Ahmad bagged 88 votes, BSS reported. The Election Commission will publish the election result in an official gazette today.
The last contested presidential election was held on October 8, 1991, when BNP candidate Abdur Rahman Biswas defeated Awami League candidate Badrul Haider Chowdhury to become the country's 11th president. Since then, no voting was required in the successive presidential elections, as a single candidate was elected uncontested in each election.
Banga Bhaban, the Bangladesh president's official residence, is making the necessary arrangements for the oath-taking ceremony for the newly elected president on Friday evening.
On July 24 this year, Mohammed Shahabuddin resigned as president, and Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad took charge as the acting president around two years before the end of his term. Shahabuddin was the only constitutional office holder who remained in office after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August 2024.
Shahabuddin had reportedly spoken to the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over the telephone while he was abroad, and that led to more calls for his resignation.
According to Article 123(2) of the Bangladesh Constitution, an election to fill the vacant office of the president must be held within 90 days of the post becoming vacant due to resignation. Voting was held from 2:00pm to 5:00pm to allow Members of Parliament (MPs) to cast their votes through an open ballot to elect the country's 23rd president.
78-year-old Alamgir was serving as the LGRD and cooperatives minister alongside discharging his role as the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
When Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was forced into exile, Alamgir became the main visible leader on the ground to steer the party under the guidance of the then acting BNP chairman from London. When Rahman was elected president this year, Alamgir was appointed as a cabinet minister and has remained a close aide of the prime minister.
After Bangladesh gained independence in 1971, Alamgir joined the teaching profession in 1972 and taught at different government colleges, including his alma mater, Dhaka College.
He quit the government job in 1986 to join mainstream politics and two years later was elected as the municipal chairman, now called 'mayor', of his hometown, Thakurgaon, in northwestern Bangladesh.
Alamgir was named acting secretary general of the BNP by then party chief and former prime minister late Begum Khaleda Zia in 2011 and later permanently named to the position.
Alamgir was born on January 26, 1948, in the Kalibari area of Thakurgaon, a northern district of Bangladesh.
