NEW DELHI: Veteran Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been elected as the 23rd president of Bangladesh.
While usually presidents in Bangladesh have been elected through a consensus, this was the first presidential election in 35 years that saw an election with the Jamaat also putting up a candidate.
Former Chief Advisor of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, congratulated Alamgir on his election as the 23rd president of Bangladesh.
Alamgir won the presidential election, defeating his lone rival, opposition Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party contender Col (Retd) Oli Ahmad, by a huge margin, Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS) reported.
He obtained 255 votes while Ahmad bagged 88 votes, BSS reported. The Election Commission will publish the election result in an official gazette today.
The last contested presidential election was held on October 8, 1991, when BNP candidate Abdur Rahman Biswas defeated Awami League candidate Badrul Haider Chowdhury to become the country’s 11th president. Since then, no voting was required in the successive presidential elections, as a single candidate was elected uncontested in each election.
