Bangladesh elects Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir by parliamentary vote, filling vacancy after Shahabuddin’s early resignation.

Members of parliament in Bangladesh have elected ruling party veteran Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the next president, following the premature resignation of the former president for health reasons.

Seventy-eight-year old Alamgir from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was declared the winner after a 255-to-88 parliamentary vote on Thursday. He defeated Oli Ahmed, 84, a retired army colonel, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party and candidate of the 11-party opposition alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami.

“I dream of a happy, prosperous and welfare-oriented state where marginalised communities, hard-working people and daily wage earners can afford meals twice a day,” Alamgir said before the vote, according to the state news agency BSS.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in 2024 following youth protests, the BNP returned to power, winning a two-thirds majority in parliament and electing Tarique Rahman as prime minister after the February 12 general election.

Late last month, 76-year-old President Mohammed Shahabuddin resigned two years before the end of his full term citing health concerns. The vote was on Thursday as the constitution requires a new president to be elected within 90 days.

The presidency, while largely ceremonial, serves as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Alamgir joined the BNP in the early 1990s after entering politics while studying economics at Dhaka University and becoming a main student leader in the 1969 uprising opposing Pakistan’s military rule.

He rose to prominence, becoming one of the best-known national leaders during Hasina’s rule. He was repeatedly arrested, which he says was politically motivated.

Alamgir most recently served as local government minister but has held several ministerial posts, including minister of agriculture, aviation and tourism.

Shahabuddin was elected president in 2023 at the height of the Awami League’s power. A close ally to Hasina and facing increasing pressure from opposition parties to step down, Shahabuddin announced that he was seriously ill and resigned on July 24.

Hasina fled Bangladesh after the mass uprising that ousted her government in 2024. She has since been living in India but has said that she intends to return home in December.