Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a longtime secretary general of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a close ally of former premier Khaleda Zia, was on Thursday elected as the country’s new President in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years.
The president is elected by Members of Parliament under Bangladesh’s constitutional system. The 78-year-old BNP stalwart defeated his lone rival Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, the 84-year-old Liberal Democratic Party chairman and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance, Chief Election Commissioner and also Election Returning Officer AMM Nasir Uddin announced after the counting of votes. Of the total 349 registered voters, 343 voted in the election. When the BNP returned to power in the February 12 elections this year, Alamgir was made the local government minister.
Six lawmakers didn’t vote, he said. 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. He will take the oath as Bangladesh’s 23rd President on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban.
