Shahabuddin set to become next President

 
Awami League Advisory Council member Mohammad Shahabuddin Chuppu is set to become the next President of Bangladesh as the ruling party nominated him as the party's presidential candidate on Sunday. An Awami League team, led by the party's general secretary Obaidul Quader, submitted the nomination paper to the Election Commission. Shahabuddin Chuppu was present at that time.

After submission of the nomination paper at the Election Commission Shahabuddin told reporters, "There is no reaction now.  This is Almighty Allah's will."  Shahabuddin, a retired district and sessions judge, served as a commissioner at the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Election Commission Secretary Jahangir Alam said, ''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 on Monday at 1pm. The chief election officer will inform you on the same day after scrutinizing the nomination papers." The EC set February 19 for presidential election, but it will not be held as Md Shahabuddin is the lone candidate. The ruling party's nominee will be declared the next president of the country as no other political party with representation in parliament proposed 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 Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15 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.