Abdul Hamid to be Bangladesh President
Abdul Hamid to be Bangladesh President
Abdul Hamid is to be Bangladesh’s 20th president after
no other candidate was nominated in the poll to replace
President Zilliur Rahman who died last month, election
authorities said Monday.
“We found only one nomination paper, filed on behalf
of Abdul Hamid for the presidency, and he is the next
President of the republic,” Chief Election
Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters.
The ruling Awami League party has an overwhelming
parliamentary majority and nominated Abdul Hamid on
Sunday.
The ballot by the 350-seat Parliament, normally required
for the largely ceremonial position of President and
planned for April 29, would not take place given the
absence of another candidate, he said.
Mr. Hamid has been acting president since March 14,
when Rahman went for medical treatment to Singapore,
where he died of respiratory problems at the age of 84
on March 20.
The date of his swearing-in and start of his five-year
term has yet to be fixed.
A former lawyer, Mr. Hamid was elected to Parliament
seven times for Kishoreganj, 100 km north-east of
Dhaka, and is currently serving his second mandate as
speaker of parliament.
He was born on January 1, 1941 in Kishoreganj, and
began in politics when he was a student in the late
1950s. He joined the Awami League in 1969.
He was given the Independence Award for his role in
Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan
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