Dhaka– Bangladesh’s President Mohammed Shahabuddin tendered his resignation on Friday, nearly two years ahead of the expiry of his tenure.
Sarwar Alam, the president’s press secretary, said he submitted his resignation to Parliamentary Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad in the afternoon. The president cited ill health as the reason for his resignation, he said.
Ahmad will now serve as acting president until a new president is elected by parliament within 90 days, according to constitutional provisions.
Speaker Ahmad, who was in Thailand on a medical trip and arrived in Dhaka on Friday cutting short his visit, told a news conference that the president was seriously ill.
“Due to various ailments, he has become physically and mentally incapable of carrying out the duties of a constitutional position as important as the presidency,” he said, adding that the president had therefore resigned.
According to constitutional provisions, the parliamentary speaker acts as president when the presidency falls vacant, or when the president is incapable of performing his duty, or when he resigns—until a new president is elected by parliament.
Shahabuddin, now 76, was elected president in April 2023, when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party held a majority in parliament. His tenure was supposed to end on April 23, 2028.
The issue of his resignation had been rumoured for the last couple of days, as newspapers reported that he could resign at any time.
He remained the only person holding his constitutional position long after the violent mass uprising ousted Hasina’s Awami League-led government in August 2024.
Student groups which led the uprising had been calling for his removal immediately after Muhammad Yunus took over as head of the interim government on August 8, 2024.
However, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had held the view that his resignation would jeopardize constitutional continuity despite the fact that the presidential position in Bangladesh’s parliamentary system is mainly ceremonial, and his functions are limited by the constitution.
Shahabuddin is the first president in Bangladesh’s history to administer oaths to three successive governments in less than two years of service.
He first administered the oath of office to Hasina after she won a controversial election in January 2024; second, to the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration following the August uprising that ousted Hasina; and third, to the Tarique Rahman-led government after his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a landslide parliamentary victory in February 2026.
