A total of 349 MPs will vote in the 23rd presidential election on 20 August. Among them, Satkhira-4 MP Gazi Nazrul Islam — expelled by Jamaat-e-Islami but still holding his seat — will also get to vote.
The information comes from the presidential-election voter list published by the Election Commission (EC). After receiving it from the parliament secretariat, the EC published the list as a gazette on Thursday night. The same day, EC senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed also announced the presidential-election schedule.
Under the gazette, 349 MPs can vote as voters in the presidential election — 299 members from general seats and 50 from reserved seats. The MP for Chattogram-4 (Sitakunda), cancelled by a higher-court order over a legal complication, has been left off the list. The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division declared void the candidacy of BNP leader Mohammad Aslam Chowdhury, unofficially elected from Chattogram-4 in the 13th parliamentary election, over loan default.
On the presence of Satkhira-4 MP Gazi Nazrul Islam’s name on the voter list, EC officials said that although Gazi Nazrul Islam had been expelled by Jamaat-e-Islami, he was still an MP. The complaint Jamaat had raised with the speaker had not yet been settled, so under the law, those still holding MP seats would be voters in the presidential election. Jamaat expelled Gazi Nazrul from the party over an alleged video that spread on social media, and after the expulsion wrote to the EC and the speaker to take necessary action against him. But the process of vacating his MP seat has not yet begun on the basis of the letter.
Under the EC’s announced schedule, nomination papers can be submitted to the returning officer and chief election commissioner (CEC) from 10am to 4pm on 13 August; scrutiny is on 16 August; and the last day for withdrawing candidacy is 18 August. Voting will be held in the parliament chamber from 2pm to 5pm on 20 August (Thursday). If there is no more than one candidate, the sole candidate will be elected unopposed and no vote will be needed.
The 22nd president, Md Sahabuddin, resigned on 24 July citing illness. In his place, parliament speaker Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed has taken charge as acting president.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report