Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami will not field any candidate in the coming presidential election. The party’s top leaders said that with no majority in parliament, they had no realistic chance of having a candidate elected, which was why the party had decided not to field a presidential candidate.
“Under the existing constitution, the president is elected by MPs’ votes. With BNP’s absolute majority in parliament, whoever they nominate will be elected. So Jamaat is not fielding a candidate in this election.”
Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Mia Golam Parwar put forward this reasoning while speaking to the BBC about not fielding a presidential candidate. He alleged, however, that the ruling party, BNP, had not held any consultation with the opposition parties in parliament over the presidential nomination.
The Election Commission (EC) has announced the presidential election schedule. Under it, nomination papers can be submitted from 10am to 4pm on 13 August; scrutiny will be on 16 August; and the last day for withdrawing candidacy is 18 August. If there is more than one valid candidate, voting will be held from 2pm to 5pm on 20 August in the National Parliament chamber.
The EC said that if only one valid candidate remains after scrutiny, no vote will be needed, and that candidate will be declared elected president; if there is more than one valid candidate, the president will be elected by MPs’ votes under the constitution and the law.
Md Sahabuddin, the 22nd president, elected under the ousted Awami League government’s nomination, resigned on 24 July. Parliament speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed has since been acting president.
The last time a presidential election went to a vote in parliament was in 1991, after the parliamentary system was reintroduced. In that election, BNP’s candidate Abdur Rahman Biswas was elected president with 172 votes, while the Awami League’s candidate, Justice Badrul Haider Chowdhury, got 92.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report