Prime Minister Tarique Rahman congratulates Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir with a red rose after the results of the presidential election were announced. Parliament House, Dhaka, August 20, 2026 Photo: Prime Minister’s Office
BNP candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected president with 255 votes. His rival, Oli Ahmed, the candidate of the 11-party unity led by Jamaat-e-Islami, received 88 votes.
Newly elected President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will take oath on Friday evening. He will be the 24th President of the country. Earlier on July 24, President Md. Shahabuddin resigned citing health reasons. According to the provisions of the constitution, Speaker of the National Assembly Hafiz Uddin Ahmed assumed the office of President on that day. According to the Bangabhaban website, he has assumed the office as the 23rd President. Accordingly, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will be the 24th President.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam was elected President by a public vote of the members of the National Assembly on Thursday. Due to Article 70 of the Constitution, there is no opportunity to vote outside the decision of one’s own party. As a result, the ruling BNP has a more than two-thirds majority in parliament, and the victory of the party’s candidate was already certain. However, since there were rivals, the vote was taken yesterday as scheduled. Earlier, the first vote in the presidential election was held in that year after the parliamentary system of government was reintroduced in 1991.
Voting began at 2 pm yesterday in the parliament chamber of the National Assembly. The last time for voting was 5 pm. The counting of votes took about 20 minutes. Then, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin announced the results of the vote. A total of 349 members of parliament voted in the election. Of these, 343 voted. The remaining 6 did not vote.
Immediately after the results were announced, the Prime Minister and Leader of the House Tarique Rahman congratulated the newly elected President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who was sitting next to him in the parliament chamber, with a rose. At that time, the members of parliament congratulated the newly elected President with huge applause and thumping of the table. The newly elected President responded by waving and greeting everyone.
Then, Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman got up from his seat and came forward. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also came forward. The two of them hugged. In turn, Mirza Fakhrul hugged Deputy Opposition Leader Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam and some others. At one stage, Parliament Leader Tarique Rahman and Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman were seen hugging in the middle of the parliament chamber.
At night, the Election Commission issued a notification regarding the election of Mirza Fakhrul as President
How the vote was held
Before the voting began, members of parliament started arriving from around 1 pm. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman entered the parliament chamber some time before 2 pm. The activities began at 2 pm with the recitation of the Holy Quran. CEC AMM Nasir Uddin presided over the meeting to conduct the election. He was accompanied by three election commissioners Abdur Rahmanel Machud, Anwarul Islam Sarkar and Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah. In addition, EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed and Parliament Secretariat Secretary Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan were present.
Officials from the EC and the Parliament Secretariat assisted in conducting the election. Before the voting began, Chief Whip Nurul Islam and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam checked whether the three transparent ballot boxes were empty or not.
The 6 voters who didn’t vote
The total number of members in the National Assembly, including 50 reserved seats for women, is 350. However, due to the order of the High Court, the results of the Chittagong-4 constituency in the 13th parliamentary election have not yet been announced. As a result, there are now 349 members of parliament. 343 people voted.
The six who did not vote were independent MP Rumin Farhana, Jamaat-e-Islami MP Gazi Nazrul Islam, Khelafat Majlis MP Abul Hasan, and BNP MPs Mirza Abbas, Osman Faruk, and Mustafa Kamal Pasha.
Among them, Mirza Abbas is abroad and Mustafa Kamal is undergoing treatment. They had informed the party about the matter earlier. Osman Faruk is also abroad. Jamaat-e-Islami has expelled Satkhira-4 MP Gazi Nazrul Islam from the party. He was not seen voting. Abul Hasan is abroad, his party’s Secretary General Ahmed Abdul Quader told Prothom Alo.
Citing multiple reasons for not voting, independent MP Rumin Farhana told Prothom Alo, “I find the presidential election meaningless. Because if there is no uncertainty in the vote, it is not an election. Everyone knows what the result of this vote is. So why call it a vote? So it is a nomination, not an election.”
