Mohammad Shahabuddin Chuppu, a former judge and freedom fighter, was elected as the 22nd President of Bangladesh. The 74-year-old was elected unopposed. He was declared winner by default as there was no rival candidate. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal made the announcement on Monday after scrutinising the nomination papers of Chuppu, a member of the Awami League party.
Hamiid’s term will end on April 23, and according to the Constitution, he cannot hold a third term.
On Monday, Hamid greeted the president-elect over the phone and wished him success. Chuppu was a district and sessions judge, and after his retirement, he served as one of the commissioners of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission.
He then took a political plunge and became a member of the Awami League Advisory Council, which comprises senior party leaders and technocrats.
Mohd Shahabuddin Chuppu set to become Bangladesh's new President
The 74-year-old was born in the northwestern Pabna district. He was a leader of Awami League’s student and youth wings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He also participated in the 1971 Liberation War and was imprisoned for waging a protest after the August 15, 1975 assassination of Bangladesh’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman —the father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina — in a military coup along with most of his family members.
In 1982, he was inducted into the country’s judicial service. He served as the coordinator of the Bangabandhu murder trial when Awami League returned to power in the 1996 elections.
