President of Bangladesh

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The President of Bangladesh (POB), officially the President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, is the head of state of Bangladesh and the commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The President’s role is largely ceremonial under the parliamentary system of government, with executive powers exercised by the prime minister and the cabinet. The President is elected by the Jatiya Sangsad for a five-year term and represents the nation in domestic and international affairs.

The role of the president has changed three times since Bangladesh achieved its independence in 1971. Initially, during the first 20 years the president held executive power. In 1991, with the restoration of a democratically elected government, Bangladesh adopted a parliamentary democracy based on a Westminster system. The president is now a largely ceremonial post, elected by the Parliament.

In 1996, Parliament passed new laws enhancing the president's executive authority, as laid down in the constitution, after the Parliament is dissolved. The president's official resident is Bangabhaban. The president is elected by the 350 parliamentarians in an open ballot, and thus generally represents the majority party of the legislature. He continues to hold office after his five-year term expires until a successor is elected to the presidency. The position in public universities is not fixed for the president under any acts or laws (since the erection of a state university in Bangladesh requires an act to be passed in itself), but it has been the custom so far to name the incumbent president of the country as chancellor of all state universities thus established.

Selection process

Eligibility

The Constitution of Bangladesh sets the principal qualifications one must meet to be eligible to the office of the president.

A person shall not be qualified for election as president if he-

is less than thirty-five years of age; or
is not qualified for election a member of Parliament; or
has been removed from the office of president by impeachment under the Constitution.

Conditions for presidency

Certain conditions, as per Article 27 of the Constitution, debar any eligible citizen from contesting the presidential elections.

The conditions are:

No person shall hold office as president for more than two terms, whether or not the terms are consecutive.
The president shall not be a member of Parliament, and if a member of Parliament is elected as president, he shall vacate his seat in Parliament on the day on which he enters upon his office as president.

Election process

Whenever the office becomes vacant, the new president is chosen by members of Parliament. Although presidential elections involve actual voting by MPs, they tend to vote for the candidate supported by their respective parties. The president may be impeached and subsequently removed from office by a two-thirds majority vote of the parliament.

Oath or affirmation

The president is required to make and subscribe in the presence of the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, an oath or affirmation that he/she shall protect, preserve and defend the Constitution as follows:

Immunity

The president is granted immunity for all his actions by Article 51 of the Constitution This Article was used during the ascension of Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar as the acting president of the state following the resignation of former president A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury, and when President Zillur Rahman could not discharge his duties due to his illness, and later, death.

Since Bangladesh is a parliamentary system, it does not have a vice-president. However, during the presidential system of governance, Bangladesh had a vice-president who would assume the president's role in his absence; the post was abolished by the twelfth amendment to the Constitution in 1991. In December on the first anniversary of the end of the war, the new constitution of the country took effect founding a unitary parliamentary republic based on the British Westminster System and transferring all executive powers to the prime minister.

Later, after the general election in 1973 where Mujib's party the Awami League achieved an expected landslide victory overkilling the opposition (not only because of intimidation of candidates and ballot stuffing by the ruling party leaders), in January 1974, the first presidential election was held. Mohammad Mohammadullah, who replaced Mujib's successor Abu Sayeed Chowdhury as acting president upon the latter's resignation, was indirectly elected uncontested and sworn in as the ceremonial head of state.

Mujib is widely considered the founder of Bangladesh and deemed as the "Father of the Nation" of the country. He is popularly referred with the honorary title of Bangabandhu (বঙ্গবন্ধু "Friend of Bengal"). He introduced the state policy of Bangladesh according to four basic principles: nationalism, secularism, democracy and socialism. He nationalized hundreds of industries and companies as well as abandoned land and capital and initiated land reform aimed at helping millions of poor farmers. Major efforts were launched to rehabilitate an estimated 10 million refugees. He further outlined state programs to expand primary education, sanitation, food, healthcare, water and electric supply across the country. A five-year plan released in 1973 focused state investments into agriculture, rural infrastructure and cottage industries.

After Bangladesh achieved recognition from most countries, Mujib helped Bangladesh enter into the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. He travelled to the United States, the United Kingdom and other European nations to obtain humanitarian and developmental assistance for the nation. He signed a treaty of friendship with India, which pledged extensive economic and humanitarian assistance and began training Bangladesh's security forces and government personnel.

Mujib's premiership however faced serious challenges, which included the rehabilitation of millions of people displaced in 1971, organizing the supply of food, health aids and other necessities. The effects of the 1970 cyclone had not worn off, and the state's economy had immensely deteriorated by the conflict. Mujib's huge nationalization program and socialist planning caused the economy to suffer. By the end of the year, thousands of Bengalis arrived from Pakistan, and thousands of non-Bengalis migrated to Pakistan; and yet many thousands remained in refugee camps. Mujib forged a close friendship with Indira Gandhi, strongly praising India's decision to intercede, and professed admiration and friendship for India. In the aftermath of the 1974 Famine, there was growing dissatisfaction with his government.

Presidential system and autocratic one-party state (1975)

Irked by the heavy criticism from the opposition and news outlets and worried about the Awami League's prospects in the next election, on 28 December 1974 Mujib declared a state of emergency. The following month, he openly advocated to the view that parliamentarism has failed in the country and had the lawmakers amend the constitution to revive the presidential system in order to better manage emergencies in the country. After assuming the presidency again, Mujib criticized "free-style" liberal democracy and established an autocratic one-party state with the strongly socialist Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League as the national party and him as the unelected president and unopposed supreme leader for life. He banned all other political parties and activities while sharply curtailing freedom of speech and the press.

However, these changes were remarked as the "Second Revolution" by Mujib. In bringing together all politicians under a single national party apparently for the sake of unity of the country during a critical period it struck a similarity to Abraham Lincoln's National Union Party during the height of the American Civil War. The new party obliged all members of parliament, government and semi-autonomous associations and bodies to join,

Military juntas and democratic presidencies (1975–1991)

Soon after, some close associates of Mujibur Rahman, who were ministers and secretaries, joined an assassination plot by the Bangladesh Army. On 15 August 1975, Mujib was assassinated in a coup d'état by some mid-ranking army officers, and replaced by one of his long time associates and cabinet members who was in a bitter bureaucratic rivalry with his loyalists, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. Immediately after, martial law was promulgated in the country.

As soon as he assumed presidency, along with replacing the national slogan of Joy Bangla ("Hail Bengal"), a cry of Bengali nationalism with Bangladesh Zindabad ("Love Live Bangladesh") calling for Bangladeshi nationalism instead, Mostaq replaced all three armed forces chiefs with next in line seniors to likely ensure the lack of Mujib loyalists in the military. He also proclaimed the Indemnity Ordinance, which granted immunity from prosecution to the assassins of Mujib. Yet only a few months later on 3 November, his regime faced a bloodless coup by pro-Mujib officers led by Brigadier General Khaled Mosharraf in an attempt to depose Mostaq and the military assassins backing his government. At night, presumably on Mostaq's orders, some army officers secretly carried out the killing of the imprisoned Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Abul Hasnat Muhammad Qamaruzzaman and Mujib's new PM Muhammad Mansur Ali. With the ousting of Mostaq three days later and the constitutional requirement for the direct election of the president and role of the vice-president as acting president suspended by Mostaq, Chief Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was appointed to the presidency of what became a military interim government. However, the next day a popular uprising led by the retired lieutenant colonel Abu Taher ended in yet another coup with the deaths of several military generals, including Mosharraf. With Mosharraf dead, the office of Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) was taken by Sayem. Sayem dissolved the parliament and scheduled a general election in February 1977 in a presidential speech addressed to the nation but indefinitely postponed it in November 1976. when Sayem retired on health grounds, without a vice-president Zia assumed acting presidency. The presidency was legitimized 40 days later through a national confidence referendum. Finally in the presidential election the following year, Zia became the first directly elected president. His government removed the remaining restrictions on political parties and encouraged all opposition parties to participate in the pending general election while putting military generals into politics. More than 30 parties vied in the 1979 general election, Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) achieved a single-party majority. After the election in February, the withdrawal of martial law was proclaimed on 6 April and the 2nd parliament was formed 9 days later.

Drifting away from the Secular State and Liberal Nationalism

Zia moved to lead the nation in a new direction, significantly different from the ideology and agenda of the 1st parliament of Bangladesh. He issued a proclamation order amending the constitution, replacing secularism with increasing the faith of the people in their creator, following the same tactics that was used in Pakistan during the Ayub Khan regime to establish a military rule over civilian democratic rule in the government system. In the preamble, he inserted the salutation "Bismillahir-Rahmaanir-Rahim" (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful). In Article 8(1) and 8(1A) the statement "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah" was added, replacing the commitment to secularism. Socialism was redefined as "economic and social justice." In Article 25(2), Zia introduced the principle that "the state shall endeavour to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity." Zia's edits to the constitution redefined the nature of the republic from the secularism laid out by Sheikh Mujib and his supporters.

In public speeches and policies that he formulated, Zia began expounding "Bangladeshi nationalism," as opposed to Mujib's assertion of a Liberal Nationalism that emphasised on the liberation of Bengalis from Pakistan's autocratic regime. Zia emphasised the national role of Islam (as practised by the majority of Bangladeshis). Claiming to promote an inclusive national identity, Zia reached out to non-Bengali minorities such as the Santals, Garos, Manipuris and Chakmas, as well as the Urdu-speaking peoples of Bihari origin. However, many of these groups were predominantly Hindu and Buddhist and were alienated by Zia's promotion of political Islam. In an effort to promote cultural assimilation and economic development, Zia appointed a Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Commission in 1976, but resisted holding a political dialogue with the representatives of the hill tribes on the issue of autonomy and cultural self-preservation. On 2 July 1977 Ziaur Rahman organised a tribal convention to promote a dialogue between the government and tribal groups. However, most cultural and political issues would remain unresolved and intermittent incidents of inter-community violence and militancy occurred throughout Zia's rule.

In the caretaker government, the president has the power to control over the Ministry of Defence, the authority to declare a state of emergency, and the power to dismiss the chief adviser and other members of the caretaker government. Once elections have been held and a new government and Parliament are in place, the president's powers and position revert to their largely ceremonial role. The chief adviser and other advisers to the caretaker government must be appointed within 15 days after the current Parliament expires.