Mirza Fakhrul elected Bangladesh president

BANGLADESH (Dunya News) - Bangladesh lawmakers have elected senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the country's new president. Although the presidency is largely ceremonial, Mirza Fakhrul will serve as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, while executive powers will remain with the prime minister and cabinet. The 78-year-old BNP leader defeated retired army colonel Oli Ahmed, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party and candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami, in the parliamentary vote. The BNP and its allies hold a two-thirds majority in parliament after winning the general elections held on February 12 this year. The election was necessitated by the resignation of former President Mohammed Shahabuddin last month on health grounds, before completing his five-year term. Shahabuddin, a former Awami League politician and close associate of Sheikh Hasina, had been elected president in 2023. The BNP returned to power in February this year after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government in 2024. Mirza Fakhrul, one of the BNP's senior leaders, served as the party's secretary-general from 2016 until his presidential nomination. During Hasina's tenure, he emerged as a prominent opposition voice and faced multiple arrests and legal cases.