BNP Set to Nominate Fakhrul as President Candidate

Mirza Fakhrul

The BNP is set to nominate its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as its candidate for the country's next president, according to several members of the party's standing committee.

BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has finalised Fakhrul's nomination, and the party is expected to officially announce the decision on 12 August, the standing committee members said on Sunday.

Fakhrul currently serves as the Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives.

On 1 August, after a meeting of the BNP Standing Committee, Fakhrul said the responsibility for selecting the party's presidential candidate and making other election-related decisions had been entrusted to Tarique Rahman.

The BNP also collected two nomination papers from the returning officer's office on Sunday for the presidential election. Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni and Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi collected the forms on behalf of the party.

The development comes as an 11-party opposition alliance has nominated Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Chairman Col (retd) Oli Ahmed as its presidential candidate.

NCP Convener Nahid Islam announced Oli's nomination at a press conference in Dhaka on Sunday. The decision was taken earlier at a meeting of the alliance's top leaders chaired by Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman.

Presidential election on 20 August

The Election Commission has scheduled the presidential election for 20 August.

Candidates must submit their nomination papers by 13 August, while scrutiny will take place on 16 August. The deadline for withdrawing candidacies is 18 August.

Each nomination paper must have a proposer and seconder who are members of parliament. A candidate may submit more than one nomination paper, but only one will remain valid after scrutiny.

If only one candidate remains after scrutiny and withdrawal, the candidate will be elected unopposed. If there are multiple candidates, voting will be held in Parliament on 20 August.

The BNP holds a two-thirds majority in Parliament, making its nominated candidate the likely winner if the party maintains its position.

Election follows Shahabuddin's resignation

The election follows the resignation of President Mohammed Shahabuddin on 24 July, citing serious illness.

Under the Constitution, a new president must be elected within 90 days of the office becoming vacant.

Until a new president is elected, Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed is serving as acting president, while Deputy Speaker Kaiser Kamal is performing the speaker's duties.

Fakhrul's political career

Born on 26 January 1948 in Thakurgaon, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir studied economics at the University of Dhaka and completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees.

He began his career as a lecturer at Dhaka College in 1972 under the Bangladesh Civil Service Education Cadre and later taught at several government colleges.

Fakhrul became involved in politics during his student years at the University of Dhaka. He joined the East Pakistan Students Union and later served in leadership positions in the organisation.

After working in government service, he resigned in 1986 and entered active politics. He joined the BNP during the anti-Ershad movement in the early 1990s and later became president of the party's Thakurgaon district unit.

He was elected from Thakurgaon-1 in the 2001 parliamentary election and served as state minister for agriculture and later as state minister for civil aviation and tourism.

Fakhrul became BNP's acting secretary general in March 2011 and was appointed secretary general in March 2016, a position he continues to hold.