Awami League Advisory Council member Md Shahabuddin Chuppu is set to become the next President of Bangladesh as the ruling party on Sunday nominated him as the party’s presidential candidate. An Awami League team, led by the party’s general secretary Obaidul Quader, submitted the nomination paper to the Election Commission.
“There is no reaction now. This is Almighty Allah’s will,” Shahabuddin told reporters after submission of the nomination paper at the Election Commission. Shahabuddin, a retired district and sessions judge, served as a commissioner at the Anti-Corruption Commission.
“Two applications have been submitted to the office of the Chief Election Commissioner and Presidential Election Officer at 11:00am and 11:05am for the same person. These two applications will be scrutinized tomorrow (Monday) at 1pm. The chief election officer will inform you tomorrow after scrutinizing the nomination papers,” said Election Commission Secretary Jahangir Alam. The EC set February 19 for presidential election, but it will be held only if there is more than one candidate.
The ruling party’s nominee will be declared as the next president of the country as no other political party with representation in parliament is likely to propose any name for the presidential election. Shahabuddin was born in Pabna in 1949 and was one of the first members of Pabna district Chhatra League, Awami League’s student wing. He would eventually become the unit’s president.
In 1971, he was the convenor of the Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad in Pabna, and took part in the Liberation War. He became the president of the Pabna district Jubo League in 1974.
He was imprisoned following the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. He was later appointed as the Law Ministry’s coordinator in the Bangabandhu assassination case. In 1982, he joined the BCS (Judicial) Department, and in 1995, he was elected General Secretary of the Judicial Service Association.
He served as the chairman of the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which investigated murders, rapes, thefts, and other crimes by BNP-Jamaat alliance’s activists and leaders following the 2001 general election. The AL delegation members included AL Presidium members Mohammad Faruk Khan, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, and Abdur Rahman, AL Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud, Chief Whip of the Jatiya Sangsad Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury Liton, AL Information and Research Secretary Salim Mahmud, AL office secretary Biplab Barua, AL publicity and publication secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap.
The final date for submitting nomination papers was February 12 and those will be reviewed on February 13, as per the EC.
The commission set February 14 as the final date for withdrawing nominations. According to the constitution, a new president has to be elected within 90 to 60 days prior to the end of the incumbent president’s tenure. The previous presidential election schedule was announced on January 25, 2018.
Abdul Hamid was elected president unopposed for the second term on February 6 though the election was slated for February 18. President Hamid is set to complete his tenure on April 23 this year.
