President set to resign after Speaker’s return
President Mohammed Shahabuddin may tender his resignation once Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad returns from abroad, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Hafiz is due back today.
When The Daily Star contacted Shahabuddin over the phone at 6:10pm yesterday and asked whether he had decided to resign, he replied, “... You’ll see ... Let’s see. [It’s an] embarrassing question.”
A high-level Bangabhaban source said, “The president has decided to say goodbye to his office, that’s true. But when that happens depends on many issues.”
“There is also the Speaker’s availability, as he is now out of the country. Let him return,” the source said, adding that the constitution requires the resignation to be submitted to the Speaker.
Another Bangabhaban source told The Daily Star, “An appointment will be sought with the Speaker tomorrow [Friday], immediately after he returns to the country. If the appointment is granted, the resignation letter will be delivered by evening, and the resignation may be formally announced to the media.”
Meanwhile, the Speaker, who is now in Thailand for treatment, had shortened his trip and would return on a Thai Airways flight scheduled to land in Dhaka at 12:40pm today, two days ahead of schedule. Shairul Kabir Khan, a member of the ruling BNP’s Media Cell, confirmed the matter to The Daily Star yesterday.
Reuters, citing three unnamed sources, reported last night that Shahabuddin would resign today. Two of the sources told Reuters that Shahabuddin on Tuesday informed Prime Minister Tarique Rahman about his decision to resign. A formal announcement would be made today.
Sources in the BNP told The Daily Star that Shahabuddin spoke by phone with ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina during his visit to London for medical treatment between May 9 and May 18 this year. Upon learning about the conversation, the party’s top leadership had conveyed a message to Shahabuddin, asking him to resign.
Shahabuddin is likely to cite health reasons for stepping down.
A senior BNP leader, however, described the matter as “more complex”, saying the reported phone conversation was not the only reason behind Shahabuddin’s impending resignation.
According to the leader, the political situation became more sensitive after Hasina recently announced plans to return to Bangladesh in December.
Talk of the president’s resignation began doing the rounds two weeks before the anniversary of the fall of the Awami League government.
Hasina has been living in exile in India since her ouster on August 5, 2024. She has since been convicted of crimes against humanity in a case over the July uprising. The activities of her party have also been banned.
Shahabuddin was appointed president by the Awami League government but remained in office through the interim administration and after the subsequent parliamentary election.
Asked about the reported conversation while talking with this newspaper, Shahabuddin said, “It is baseless, baseless and baseless. Totally baseless.”
“We are very fair people. I have acted fairly all my life. The world is now so small that people can talk from any corner if they want.
“... I was almost dead at the time. I was so ill in London. I was undergoing treatment. It is baseless. That is all I can say. Baseless and concocted.”
Responding to a question yesterday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam said the ministry had no specific information about the reported phone call between Shahabuddin and Hasina.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. However, if any information emerges, the government will investigate the matter, she said, according to UNB.
Amid speculations over the president’s resignation, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed responded to questions from the media on the matter yesterday.
Before a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat, he said the government had taken no initiative regarding any possible resignation by the president.
“If the honourable president wants to resign due to health reasons or for any other reason, that option is available to him under the constitution. But we do not know,” he added.
Salahuddin, however, was more explicit after the meeting, saying, “Wait until Friday.”
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS
Under the constitution, the president resigns by submitting a signed letter addressed to the Speaker.
Article 50(3) stipulates that the president may resign by sending a signed letter to the Speaker.
Article 54 says that if the office of the president falls vacant, or if the president is unable to discharge the functions of the office due to absence, illness or any other cause, the Speaker shall perform those functions until a new president is elected or the incumbent resumes office.
Article 123(2) requires that a new president be elected within 90 days of the office becoming vacant through death, resignation or removal. Under article 48(1), the president is elected by the votes of the members of parliament. However, as there is no scope to vote against one’s own party in parliament, the nominee of the ruling party is usually elected president unopposed.
Asked about the procedure, Ali Imam Majumder, former cabinet secretary and adviser to the interim government, told The Daily Star, “A secretary of the president’s office or another authorised official will deliver the signed resignation letter to the Speaker. The resignation takes effect as soon as the Speaker receives it.
“After the Speaker forwards the resignation letter to the Cabinet Division, the cabinet secretary will issue a gazette notification announcing the president’s resignation.”
After serving as Bangladesh’s 22nd president for nearly three years and three months since taking oath on April 24, 2023, Shahabuddin still has one year and nine months of his term remaining in line with the constitution.
Following the BNP-led government’s election victory, he told a newspaper interview on February 24 that he would remain in office if the government wanted him to stay but would resign voluntarily if it preferred his departure.
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