DHAKA — Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin is set to resign nearly two years before completing his term, as concerns grow that his former ally Sheikh Hasina will return to the country.
A senior BNP leader said that Shahabuddin could step down soon, but did not provide further details.
The possibility of his resignation emerged after several Bangladeshi media organizations reported that discussions were underway over appointing a new president.
Speculation over his resignation has grown over the past two days, with several Bangladeshi media outlets reporting that the government is no longer comfortable with the president remaining in office.
According to newspaper Prothom Alo citing a senior government source, the administration was unhappy over reports that Shahabuddin had recently attempted to re-establish contact with Hasina.
Shahabuddin remains the only constitutional figure from the former Awami League government still holding office after a student-led uprising led to Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in 2024. Hasina moved to India and has remained there since.
Shahabuddin’s resignation comes days after Hasina told Reuters that she would return to Bangladesh, where she faces the death penalty for crushing student-led protests in July-August 2024 that eventually toppled her government.
A senior official said Shahabuddin would tender his resignation to the parliament speaker, who returns to Bangladesh on Friday.
The speaker, Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, is cutting short his visit to Thailand, where he had gone for medical treatment, sources told BBC.
If the president resigns, the speaker of parliament will serve as acting president until a new head of state is elected in accordance with the Bangladesh Constitution.
Shahabuddin’s spokesperson also told Reuters the president, who been in his role since 2023, is expected to quit on Friday.
However, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters on Thursday that the government has not told the president anything, and that constitution allows the president to resign if he wishes.
Earlier this month, Hasina said in a Reuters interview that she and her allies would return from exile in India and face the court in Bangladesh.
Last year, the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh found Hasina guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, 1,400 of whom died during the unrest that eventually saw her flee the country. The court sentenced her to death in absentia.
In the months following her departure, her party, the Awami League, has been banned from politics, and many of its leaders jailed.
“My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression,” she told Reuters during the interview earlier this month.
“If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.”
Along with the ousting of Hasina’s government, top bureaucrats across her administration were removed from their posts.
President Shahabuddin continued to carry out his presidential duties after an interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took power.
But Shahabuddin, whose term is supposed to end in 2028, told Reuters last December that he was eager to leave his presidency. He said he had felt “humiliated” by the interim government, citing the sudden removal of his portraits from Bangladeshi consulates and embassies.
However, he added that he would continue his presidency until elections were held and let the next government decide on his position.
After the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secured a landslide victory in the general election in February, Shahabuddin stayed on as president.
Should Shahabuddin step down, elections for a new president must be held in 90 days.
Source: Saudi Gazette