Bangladesh’s presidential election got under way 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 p.m. local time, is taking place in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament), with 349 lawmakers eligible to cast their ballots. Ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, 78, is facing Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, 84, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chairperson and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party Opposition alliance. The election is being conducted through an open ballot.
Speaking at the BNP parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday (August 19, 2026), Mr. The Election Commission is expected to announce the result after completion of the counting of votes and publish it in the official gazette. 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. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who is also the BNP chairman, had nominated Mr. Alamgir, a longtime secretary general of the party and a close ally of former premier Khaleda Zia, as its presidential candidate. Alamgir appealed to the BNP lawmakers to vote for him in the election. Alamgir, who has served as BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General, Acting Secretary General and Secretary General. The analysts also opine that Mr. 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.
“If I have made any mistake or unintentionally hurt anyone during my tenure, I seek forgiveness,” said Mr.
