BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has decided to nominate BNP Secretary General and Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir for the post of President.

A senior BNP leader confirmed the development on Sunday (August 9).

The leader said the party chairman has more or less finalised Mirza Fakhrul’s name for the presidency.

Several other senior BNP leaders said the decision to finalise the presidential candidate rests solely with Tarique Rahman and that they have not been formally informed of his decision. However, a leader close to the prime minister confirmed that Fakhrul’s name has been finalised for the presidency.

Meanwhile, the BNP has begun formal preparations for the presidential election. The party collected two nomination papers from the Election Commission on Sunday morning.

BNP Vice Chairman and Chief Whip of Parliament Nurul Islam Moni and Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi collected the nomination papers from the office of the returning officer at the Election Commission’s headquarters in Agargaon.

Earlier, the BNP’s National Standing Committee had entrusted Tarique Rahman with the responsibility of selecting the party’s presidential candidate. As the BNP holds a majority in parliament, its nominated candidate is considered the most likely to be elected president.

The Election Commission has scheduled the presidential election for August 20. If necessary, voting will be held in Parliament from 2:00pm to 5:00pm that day.

However, if Mirza Fakhrul is the only valid candidate, there will be no need for a vote in Parliament. In that case, he could be declared President unopposed.