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Speculation over the BNP’s presidential nominee is set to end on Thursday, when party Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is scheduled to meet the Standing Committee to finalise the candidate.
The meeting is scheduled for noon, just hours before the deadline for submitting nomination papers, which is from 10am to 4pm on Thursday.
Several BNP leaders said the party’s presidential candidate will be announced after the meeting. They indicated that BNP Secretary General and Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is likely to receive the party’s nomination.
The formal announcement could come around 12:30pm after the Standing Committee meeting, party sources said.
On August 10, the BNP Standing Committee entrusted Tarique Rahman with the responsibility of selecting the party’s candidate for the presidential election.
Since then, speculation has intensified that Mirza Fakhrul could be the BNP nominee for the country’s top constitutional post.
A Standing Committee member said the candidate’s name would be finalised at Thursday’s meeting with the party chairman.
The prospective candidate’s signature will also be obtained at the meeting, after which a BNP delegation will submit the nomination paper to the Election Commission along with the signatures of the proposer and seconder, the party leader said.
Meanwhile, the 11-party opposition alliance led by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has nominated Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Col (retd) Oli Ahmad as its candidate for the presidential election.
Both the ruling party and the opposition alliance have collected nomination papers for their respective candidates.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, who is serving as the returning officer for the presidential election, has convened a meeting of MPs at the session chamber of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on August 20 for the presidential vote.
According to the election schedule announced by the EC on August 6, nomination papers will be scrutinised on August 16, while the deadline for withdrawing candidature is August 18.
Voting will be held from 2pm to 5pm on August 20 at the session chamber of the Jatiya Sangsad. A total of 349 MPs are eligible to vote, with the Chattogram-4 parliamentary seat currently vacant.
The election will be the first presidential contest in 35 years to feature more than one candidate and the first contested presidential election since the parliamentary system was restored in 1991.
Former president Mohammed Shahabuddin resigned on July 24, after which Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad assumed charge as acting president.
Under Article 123(2) of the Constitution, an election to fill a vacant presidential office must be held within 90 days of the post becoming vacant due to resignation.
