The Election Commission (EC) on Monday declared Mohammad Shahabuddin, a retired judge and a former commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), as the President of Bangladesh unopposed.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal declared Mohammad Shahabuddin as the president of the country after scrutinizing his nomination paper.
The EC authorities also published a gazette notification signed by EC Secretary Jahangir Alam in this regard.
Nominated by the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is also one of the presidium members of the ruling party, is now going to replace incumbent President Md. Abdul Hamid.
The Awami League submitted the nomination paper of Mohammad Shahabuddin as the presidential candidate on Sunday and a day after the Election Commission Office made the announcement Monday noon.
"As per the election schedule, two nomination papers were submitted for Shahabuddin on Sunday and one of those was accepted as valid after scrutiny. We also published a gazette notification in this regard," said CEC Kazi Habibul Awal while talking to journalists at the EC office in capital’s Agargaon on Monday.
AL General Secretary and also Road Transport and Bridges Minister, Obaidul Quader, Joint General Secretary and Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud and Office Secretary Biplab Barua were present during scrutinizing the nomination papers.
Shahbuddin has been declared the country's 22nd President as no other political party except AL nominated any candidate for the post.
Earlier on Sunday, an AL delegation came to the Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon along with Shahbuddin at 10.45am with the nomination paper signed by party's General Secretary Obaidul Quader as the proposer while its Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud seconded the proposal.
Under the EC procedures the nomination paper was required to be signed by Shahbuddin as well, as consent to his nomination.
On February 7, Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) entrusted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with selecting the party nominee for the presidency as the tenure of incumbent President Abdul Hamid will end on April 24 this year.
A 1971 valiant freedom fighter, Shahbuddin was born in 1949 in Pabna and initially began his career as a lawyer. He started career in the judicial service in 1982 as an assistant judge and subsequently became a district and sessions judge.
He served as the coordinator of Bangbandhu Murder Trial when Awami League returned to power in 1996 elections after 21 years of political wilderness and exposed the Bangabandhu killers to justice.
Shahbuddin, as well, served as the chairman of the Judicial Inquiry Commission after the 2001 general elections to investigate the murders, rapes and looting and inhumane activities committed by the BNP-Jamaat alliance.
He was also elected as the general secretary of the Judicial Service Association in 1995.
After his retirement, he was appointed as a commissioner of independent Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
In his student life, Shahbuddin was a political activist and leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League and was the convener of Pabna district's Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad in 1971.
He was imprisoned for waging a protest after the August 15, 1975 assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a military coup along with most of his family members.
He was also the election commissioner in the last National Council of Bangladesh Awami League.
Shahbuddin's wife Rebeka Sultana is former joint secretary to the government while the couple has a son.