Bangladesh holds presidential election in first contested vote in 35 years | Elections News

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladesh is holding its first contested presidential election in 35 years, with the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP) candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir pitted in opposition to former military officer Oli Ahmad, the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance.

A complete of 349 members of parliament are eligible to vote within the parliamentary chamber between 08:00 GMT and 11:00 GMT on Thursday, with the outcome anticipated hours later, in line with Bangladesh’s Election Fee.

The election was triggered by the resignation final month of Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected unopposed in 2023 as a nominee of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) get together. He give up midway by means of his five-year time period after serving by means of Hasina’s elimination in August 2024, the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration, and the BNP’s return to energy in February.

Thursday’s vote would be the first contested presidential election since October 1991, when BNP candidate Abdur Rahman Biswas defeated AL nominee Badrul Haider Chowdhury by 172 votes to 92. Each presidential election since was uncontested.

The result, nonetheless, is broadly seen as a foregone conclusion.

Of the 349 lawmakers eligible to vote, 247 belong to the BNP and 90 to the Jamaat-led opposition alliance, giving Alamgir a decisive numerical benefit.

Nonetheless, the vote carries symbolic significance for a rustic reshaping its establishments two years after the 2024 rebellion that ended Hasina’s iron-fisted 15-year rule.

Who’re the candidates?

Alamgir, 78, is without doubt one of the BNP’s most distinguished leaders. He turned the appearing secretary-general in 2011 and was formally appointed to the submit in 2016, rising as one of many get together’s principal public faces throughout its lengthy years in opposition underneath Hasina.

After the BNP swept this yr’s election, Alamgir turned minister for native authorities, rural growth and cooperatives.

At a BNP parliamentary get together assembly on Wednesday, he thanked Prime Minister Tarique Rahman for nominating him and pledged to not compromise on Bangladesh’s independence and sovereignty. Rahman in flip urged BNP lawmakers to vote for Alamgir.

Alamgir’s opponent, retired Colonel Ahmad, 85, is a adorned veteran of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation Struggle, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Get together (LDP), and a six-time member of parliament.

As soon as a detailed affiliate of former President Ziaur Rahman, the daddy of present Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, Ahmad joined the BNP in 1980 after leaving the military the yr earlier than. He served as communications minister underneath former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and based the LDP in 2006.

Ahmad’s nomination is politically placing: his important backer, the Jamaat, had opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 and sided with Pakistan in the course of the battle, whereas Ahmad fought within the Liberation Struggle.

Regardless of Ahmad’s slim probabilities of successful, the opposition alliance has hailed him as an skilled and broadly acceptable candidate, making certain that the presidency shall be determined by means of a vote and never stay uncontested.

Amongst Bangladeshis, views are divided over the 2 males’s political data.

For Anwarul Islam, a former Bangladesh Financial institution official, Alamgir stands out for his private integrity.

“I visited Mirza Fakhrul’s constituency. Individuals, regardless of race or faith, have huge affection for him,” Islam advised Al Jazeera. “His integrity is uncommon amongst Bangladeshi politicians.”

Abdul Baten, a supervisor at a development web site within the capital Dhaka, stated he most popular Ahmad.

“I might undoubtedly want Oli as a result of he’s a seasoned politician,” Baten stated. “His opponent, Fakhrul, and the BNP didn’t preserve their guarantees on state reforms.”

Historic, however how necessary?

Bangladesh’s structure makes the president the pinnacle of state, however grants the workplace little impartial govt authority. Article 48(3) requires the president to behave on the prime minister’s recommendation, besides in appointing the prime minister and the chief justice.

Ali Riaz, a political scientist who served as co-chair of the Nationwide Consensus Fee on state reforms underneath the Yunus-led interim authorities, stated the return of a contested election was welcome, however its sensible significance shouldn’t be overstated.

“It’s good to see that somebody who has been on the forefront of the democratic motion and fought in opposition to a fascist regime shall be occupying the workplace of the president,” Riaz advised Al Jazeera.

“Nonetheless, the presidential election has little or no significance because of the restricted powers of the president.”

Riaz stated the July National Charter on key reforms agreed by political events after the 2024 rebellion, and ratified by means of a referendum on this yr’s election, proposed that the president be elected by members of each homes of parliament. The plan for an higher chamber of parliament, with important powers over key constitutional and statutory our bodies to stability energy, has nonetheless not been applied.

Riaz additionally questioned the importance of an open vote by which the governing get together already has the numbers to win. “The election is extra of a ritual than substantive by way of governance and politics,” he stated.

Questions over the method

For the households of greater than 1,400 individuals killed by the safety forces in the course of the 2024 rebellion, Shahabuddin’s departure and the election of a brand new president are overdue.

“It ought to have occurred a lot earlier, however it’s nonetheless good to see it taking place now,” Sanjida Khan Deepti, mom of 17-year-old Shahriar Khan Anas who was killed in the course of the rebellion, advised Al Jazeera.

However Deepti questioned whether or not MPs needs to be certain by their get together’s alternative.

“If an MP can not vote for the particular person they imagine is greatest for the nation, then what’s the level of holding a vote?” she stated. “Our kids gave their lives for democracy.”

The election has revived debates over whether or not Article 70 of the structure – which might price lawmakers their parliamentary seats for voting in opposition to their get together – ought to apply to a presidential election.

For all its constitutional limitations and predictable arithmetic, Thursday’s vote will mark a uncommon second in Bangladesh’s politics: for the primary time in additional than three a long time, lawmakers may have two names on the poll for the nation’s subsequent head of state.