Whoever is elected president in Thursday’s vote will be sworn in at Bangabhaban on Friday night, the following day. Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni said this at a briefing Wednesday afternoon at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, following a meeting of the parliamentary party of the ruling BNP.
He said: “After 35 years, we will cast our votes in the presidential election on Thursday afternoon, God willing. Voting will begin at 2:00 p.m. and continue until 5:00 p.m. The Election Commission and parliament have together decided that live coverage of the vote will begin five minutes before polling starts. The president, the speaker, the prime minister, the leader of the opposition, and our presidential candidate, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, will all cast their votes, and that will be shown live.”
Nurul Islam Moni said: “After that, everything will be recorded. Then, five minutes before voting ends, we will begin live coverage again. After that, we will also broadcast the result announcement live. You will see that tomorrow will be a historic moment — a new chapter in the country’s democratic journey will begin. The new president will be sworn in at Bangabhaban at 7:30 p.m. this coming Friday.”
Saying the new journey would begin under the leadership of party chairman Tareque Rahman, the chief whip said: “We consider Tareque Rahman our leader. We fought and struggled under his leadership for 17 long years. What came out of that struggle is that we were elected through a democratic process and formed the government. We want to establish democracy, to give it institutional form. We want the government and the opposition to be inclusive in establishing democracy in this country and to keep the country’s progress going. That’s why, as you’ll see, one presidential candidate is Dr. Oli Ahmed, and the other is our own Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. The vote will be held. The people of this country will once again witness how their country votes. God willing, we will be able to elect a new president.”
The briefing was also attended by parliamentary whips Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, Mia Nuruddin Ahmed Apu, A B M Ashraf Uddin Nizan and G K Gauas; members of parliament Amirul Islam Alim and Khandaker Abu Ashfaque; and the prime minister’s deputy press secretary, Zahidul Islam Rony.
Earlier Wednesday, the BNP’s parliamentary party meeting began at 4:00 p.m. on the ninth floor of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, chaired by parliamentary leader and Prime Minister Tareque Rahman, and ended at 4:40 p.m. Presidential candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was also present at the meeting.
This is the first time in 35 years that more than one candidate is contesting the presidential election, making an actual vote necessary.
The total number of voters in the presidential election is 349 members of parliament.
The last time a vote was held for the presidency in the parliament chamber was on October 8, 1991. At that time, the BNP’s candidate was Abdur Rahman Biswas, while the Awami League’s candidate was Badrul Haider Chowdhury. In that 11th presidential election, Abdur Rahman Biswas (172 votes) defeated the Awami League’s Badrul Haider Chowdhury (92 votes) to become the country’s 11th president.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report