President Md Shahabuddin may resign shortly. Several responsible sources say physical ill health is likely to be cited as the reason.
Sources connected with the government and the BNP say a message has already been sent from the BNP’s high command to Md Shahabuddin, who was elected president during the Awami League government, asking him to resign. Discussion is also under way at a high level about his possible successor.
A source connected with the sending of the BNP’s high-level message to the president spoke to this correspondent on Wednesday night. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source confirmed there is a possibility the president will resign very soon.
A source centred on Bangabhaban said the president has himself indicated to his subordinate staff that he will leave Bangabhaban soon. According to that source, he will rest for some time after resigning and may also go abroad for treatment.
Discussion is also under way in the ruling BNP’s high command about the election of the next president. The name of a secretary serving on a contractual basis in an important government post has suddenly come into discussion as a possible next president, although the names of senior BNP leaders including Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Abdul Moyeen Khan had earlier been discussed for the post.
If Md Shahabuddin resigns, under the constitution the speaker will temporarily perform the duties of president. A new president will then be elected within the set time by the votes of members of parliament. The next parliamentary election is due to be held during the new president’s term, so who becomes the country’s next president has taken on political importance.
Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, the senior BNP leader whose name is in discussion for the presidency, said he knows nothing about the matter. Asked about the sudden discussion of a serving secretary’s name for the post, he said: “I am completely unaware of this. And if something like that happens (the president resigning), many names will be discussed for the vacant post — that is only natural.”
No formal statement or announcement about President Md Shahabuddin’s resignation had come from Bangabhaban or the government as of Wednesday.
What the constitution says on the president’s resignation
Under article 50(3) of the constitution, the president may resign by a signed letter addressed to the speaker. Article 54 states that if the office of president falls vacant, or if he is unable to perform his duties because of absence, illness or any other cause, the speaker will perform the president’s duties until a new president is elected.
Under article 123 of the constitution, if the office of president falls vacant through resignation, death or removal, a new president must be elected within the following 90 days. The president is elected by the votes of members of parliament. With the ruling BNP holding a majority in parliament, its nominee would be expected to be elected.
The name of a secretary currently serving on a contractual basis in an important government post is being heard most as a possible president. Those concerned said his name has come forward on considerations of administrative experience and the confidence of the government’s top leadership, though party and government policymakers will discuss further before a final decision.
Ruling-party policymakers are also weighing that the new president will have to handle possible political pressure around the next parliamentary election, so experience of working with the government, the opposition and state institutions, and general acceptability, are being given weight.
Background
After the mass uprising, student leaders had demanded President Md Shahabuddin’s removal. Organisations linked to the July movement held various programmes demanding his resignation, including a siege of Bangabhaban. The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, however, took no step to remove him.
Md Shahabuddin was sworn in as the 22nd president of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on April 24, 2023. Nominated by the Awami League, he was elected president unopposed. His five-year term was due to end in April 2028.
The country’s political situation changed fundamentally after the fall of the Awami League government in the student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024. Then prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country. Md Shahabuddin served as president through several important stages of the political transition that followed, including the dissolution of parliament and the formation of an interim government.
The BNP subsequently came to power through the parliamentary election, creating a difference in political background between the president and the government. Although Md Shahabuddin was elected president on the Awami League’s nomination during its rule, the BNP did not move to remove him immediately after forming a government. There has been much discussion in political circles about the president’s future since the change of government, but neither the government nor the BNP has ever publicly demanded his resignation.
There was criticism and discussion around making Shahabuddin president even during Awami League rule. He served as a commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) from 2011 to 2016, a period in which various allegations were made against him. His closeness to the controversial business group S Alam later became public. After his ACC service he served as vice-chairman of the board of Islami Bank and as an adviser to NRB Global Bank. Both banks were then owned by S Alam, an influential business group during the Awami League government, and it was in those banks that the most extensive looting took place. At the time there was discussion, including on social media, describing the president as a representative of S Alam.
The Awami League government, since ousted, appointed Md Shahabuddin as president while he held his position at Islami Bank. He resigned from the bank and has served as president since April 24, 2023. Within the Awami League it was said that the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana together took the decision to make Shahabuddin president.
Sources say the ruling party took some time to see whether the president would step down of his own accord. The BNP high command’s view was conveyed to him recently.
If the president does resign, it will mark another important change in the state’s highest constitutional office after the mass uprising and the subsequent national election. It will also give the BNP, for the first time since coming to power, the opportunity to install someone of its own choosing as president. With the next parliamentary election due to be held during the new president’s term, there is considerable interest in political circles over who that will be.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report