Abdul Hamid to be Bangladesh President

Abdul Hamid is to be Bangladesh’s 20th president after no other candidate was nominated in the poll to replace President Zilliur Rahman who died last month, election authorities said on 22 April. “We found only one nomination paper, filed on behalf of Abdul Hamid for the presidency, and he is the next President of the republic,” Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters. The ruling Awami League party has an overwhelming parliamentary majority and nominated Abdul Hamid on 21 April. The ballot by the 350-seat Parliament, normally required for the largely ceremonial position of President and planned for April 29, would not take place given the absence of another candidate, he said. Mr. Hamid has been acting president since March 14, when Rahman went for medical treatment to Singapore, where he died of respiratory problems at the age of 84 on March 20. The date of his swearing-in and start of his five-year term has yet to be fixed. A former lawyer, Mr. Hamid was elected to Parliament seven times for Kishoreganj, 100 km north-east of Dhaka, and is currently serving his second mandate as speaker of parliament. He was born on January 1, 1941 in Kishoreganj, and began in politics when he was a student in the late 1950s. He joined the Awami League in 1969. He was given the Independence Award for his role in Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.