Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Secretary General and Local Government Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been finalized as the party’s candidate for the country’s 23rd presidential election. Following his nomination, he also resigned from the posts of BNP secretary general and member of the party’s National Standing Committee.

Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi confirmed the decision to journalists after a meeting of the party’s top leaders at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Secretariat on Thursday (August 13) afternoon.

Rizvi said, “বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দলের পক্ষ থেকে আনন্দের সঙ্গে জানাচ্ছি, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দলের রাষ্ট্রপতি প্রার্থী হয়েছেন দলের সংগ্রামী মহাসচিব মির্জা ফখরুল ইসলাম আলমগীর। কিছুক্ষণ আগে দলের চেয়ারম্যান ও প্রধানমন্ত্রীর সঙ্গে বৈঠকে এ সিদ্ধান্ত নেওয়া হয়।”

Rizvi also said that Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir stepped down from his positions as BNP secretary general and member of the National Standing Committee immediately after being nominated for the presidency.

Earlier in the afternoon, BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman held a meeting with the party’s senior ministers and Standing Committee members at his office in the Secretariat. During the meeting, Standing Committee member Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan proposed Mirza Fakhrul’s nomination for president, while Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy supported the proposal.

For the past several days, there had been widespread speculation over who would be BNP’s presidential candidate. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s name, however, had been the most prominent in those discussions. The party formally announced his nomination on Thursday.

If Mirza Fakhrul is elected president, his Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary seat will become vacant. The Election Commission will subsequently arrange a by-election for the constituency.

On July 24, President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected with the nomination of the Awami League (currently banned from political activities), resigned from office. Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed then assumed the duties of acting president. Under the Constitution, a new president must be elected within 90 days of the office becoming vacant.

According to the Election Commission’s schedule, August 13 is the final day for submitting presidential nomination papers. Scrutiny of the nominations will take place on August 16, while candidates can withdraw their candidacies until August 18. If more than one candidate remains valid, voting will be held in the National Parliament on August 20, from 2pm to 5pm.

Under the Constitution, the president is elected by members of Parliament. Given BNP’s majority in Parliament, the party’s candidate is considered to be in a favorable position in the presidential election, according to political calculations.

Meanwhile, the 11-party alliance led by Jamaat has nominated Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Chairman Colonel (retd.) Oli Ahmed as its candidate for president.