dhaka, Aug 20
Bangladeshi lawmakers elected veteran Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the country’s new president on Thursday, making the long-time opposition figure the head of state after his party came to power in a major political transition, reported Reuters.
The country elected new President in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years. The 78-year-old BNP stalwart defeated his rival Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, the Liberal Democratic Party chairman and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance, Chief Election Commissioner and also Election Returning Officer AMM Nasir Uddin said. Alamgir secured 255 votes while Oli Ahmad bagged 88 votes, he said. Of the total 349 registered voters, 343 voted in the election. Six lawmakers didn’t vote, he added. The president-elect will take the oath as Bangladesh’s new President on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban. It is the first contested presidential election in Bangladesh since 1991, as the office had largely been filled through consensus and uncontested polls in recent decades. The presidential election was necessitated after Mohammed Shahabuddin, a close aide of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned last month on health grounds before completing his five-year tenure.
BNP was founded seven years after the Bangladesh Liberation War. Before getting into mainstream politics, Alamgir held a government job. He became a teacher of economics after joining the civil service’s education cadre in 1972. Since then, he worked with the government in various capacities. Alamgir quit the government job in 1986 to start a career in politics. Two years later, he was elected chairman of the municipality in his hometown, Thakurgaon, located in northwestern Bangladesh, as an independent candidate.
The son of Muslim League leader and former East Pakistan Provincial Assembly member Mirza Ruhul Amin, Alamgir joined the BNP in the early 1990s, during the mass movement against the autocratic regime of then-President Hussain Muhammad Ershad. The anti-Ershad movement brought Khaleda Zia, then leader of the BNP, and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina together in opposition to the military-backed regime, despite their political differences. The two leaders later became bitter political opponents and both went on to serve multiple terms as Bangladesh’s prime minister.
In BNP, Alamgir climbed the ranks over two decades. In 2011, he was appointed acting secretary general by Khaleda Zia. He was given permanent charge of the position in 2016.
Alamgir is the longest-serving secretary general of the party. It is traditionally considered the second most senior position after the party chairman. The BNP leader retained the position until his election as the South Asian nation’s 23rd president on Thursday.
During his long political career, Alamgir earned a reputation as a moderate and courteous politician, with his measured style and personal decency earning respect even among political opponents.
He was first elected to parliament from his home turf Thakurgaon-1 in 2001, when the BNP returned to power, and served as state minister for agriculture and later state minister for civil aviation and tourism.
The veteran politician was elected from two constituencies in the 2018 general election but did not take the oath as an MP in line with a BNP decision. The party allowed five other lawmakers to join the parliament, but they too resigned in 2022, following directions from their top leadership.
Alamgir was elected again from Thakurgaon-1 in the February 2026 general election, which was held after the Awami League was barred from contesting.
The election — held after an interim government led by Muhammad Yunus oversaw the transition following the ouster of Hasina after violent student-led protests in 2024 — brought the BNP to power, with Tarique Rahman as its new chief after the death of his mother Khaleda Zia in December 2025.
He is married to Rahat Ara Begum, who studied at Calcutta University and later worked for private insurance companies. They have two daughters – one is a postdoctoral fellow in Australia and the other teaches at a Dhaka school.
