Fakhrul, Oli face off tomorrow

Bangladesh is heading for its first contested presidential election in 35 years, with BNP’s Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Jamaat-led 11-party alliance candidate Oli Ahmed set to face each other in Thursday’s vote after neither withdrew from the race within the deadline.

The deadline for withdrawing nominations ended at 4pm on Tuesday. After the deadline, Election Commission Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters that neither candidate had withdrawn from the race.

The voting will take place in the Parliament chamber of the National Assembly from 2pm to 5pm on Thursday, he said. Ballot papers for the election will be prepared on Tuesday.

According to EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, the ballot paper will have two parts, with one containing the ballot and the other providing the ballot paper section. The latter will contain the serial number, name of the MP and division number. MPs will sign their full names before receiving their ballots.

The names of the two candidates will be arranged on the right side according to the initial letters of their Bengali names. MPs will cast their votes in the blank space beside the candidate’s name and then place their ballots in a designated ballot box. Ballots will be accepted until 5pm.

Counting will begin after 5pm in the Parliament chamber. The election officer will announce the result there, after which the Election Commission will publish the gazette.

There are 350 parliamentary seats, including reserved seats for women. However, the court has cancelled the membership of BNP MP Aslam Chowdhury, leaving 349 MPs eligible to vote in the presidential election.

The presidential election is taking place after 35 years. The last contested presidential election was held in 1991. Since then, seven presidents have been elected unopposed as ruling party candidates because opposition parties did not field candidates.

The current Parliament has a two-thirds majority of BNP, while the Jamaat-led alliance has 90 MPs. As a result, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is widely expected to win the election.

Article 70 of the Constitution prevents MPs from voting against their party’s decision. An MP who votes against the party decision will lose his or her parliamentary membership.

Although Mirza Fakhrul’s victory is considered almost certain, the presence of two candidates means voting will take place as scheduled on August 20.

Former President Md Shahabuddin resigned from office on July 24. Under the Constitution, a new president must be elected within 90 days of the president’s resignation.