Bangladeshi lawmakers have elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party veteran Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the country’s next president, in a parliamentary vote held on Thursday.

Alamgir, 78, was declared the winner after a 255-to-88 vote. He defeated Oli Ahmed, 84, a retired army colonel and chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, who stood as the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami. Daily Mirror, carrying a Reuters report, said Chief Election Commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin announced the result.

The presidency in Bangladesh is largely ceremonial. The office holder serves as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, while executive authority rests with the prime minister.

“I dream of a happy, prosperous and welfare-oriented state where marginalised communities, hard-working people and daily wage earners can afford meals twice a day,” Alamgir said before the vote, according to the state news agency BSS as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Vacancy followed Shahabuddin’s resignation

The vote was triggered by the resignation of President Mohammed Shahabuddin, 76, who stepped down on July 24, two years before the end of his term, citing serious illness. Shahabuddin, a former Awami League politician and close ally of Sheikh Hasina, had been elected in 2023 and faced sustained opposition pressure to leave office.

The BNP returned to power at the February 12 general election, winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority and installing Tarique Rahman as prime minister. That vote followed the collapse of Hasina’s government in the mass uprising of 2024. Hasina has been living in India since fleeing the country and has said she intends to return in December.

One of the BNP’s longest-serving figures, Alamgir was the party’s secretary-general from 2016 until his nomination for the presidency. He was repeatedly arrested during Hasina’s rule, which he has said was politically motivated, and became one of the opposition’s most recognisable voices. He has held several ministerial portfolios, most recently local government.