Hamid's oath tomorrow
Abdul Hamid will take oath as the country's 20th president tomorrow as he was declared elected unopposed yesterday.
Acting Speaker Shawkat Ali will administer the oath to Hamid at Bangabhaban Darbar Hall in the evening, sources said.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad declared the 69-year-old seasoned politician Hamid elected uncontested following scrutiny of his nomination papers filed on Sunday.
Nominated by the ruling Awami League, Speaker Hamid was the lone candidate for the presidency which fell vacant with the death of Zillur Rahman on March 20.
Hamid has been acting president since March 14 after Zillur Rahman fell ill.
Hamid will hold the top constitutional post for the next five years while the tenure of the present government will expire in January next year.
Members of parliament constitute the electorate for presidential polls.
Hamid, who has a political career of more than five decades, will step into the Bangabhaban, the office-cum-residence of the head of state, amid high expectations that he would play a vital role in overcoming the growing political crisis centring the next parliamentary election.
The CEC said the office of the Speaker and his parliamentary seat will fall vacant on his taking oath as president.
Parliament will elect a new Speaker on Thursday.
Hamid, who missed BNP-led opposition MPs in the House almost for his entire tenure as Speaker, may not also find them at the Bangabhaban during his oath-taking as president. The main opposition party might boycott the ceremony.
The BNP participated in the oath-taking ceremony of Zillur Rahman on February 12, 2009.
Two senior BNP leaders said yesterday they were mulling over not joining the oath-taking ceremony in protest against what they said was appointment of High Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik as Supreme Court judge by acting President Hamid recently.
Asked, MK Anwar, who joined the oath-taking ceremony of Zillur Rahman, said his party was yet to decide whether to take part in the ceremony.
Hamid was elected the junior most member of the National Assembly in 1970 from Mymensingh-18 constituency.
He joined the Liberation War in 1971 and was awarded the Swadhinata Padak this year for his contribution to the war.
Hamid was elected member of parliament in 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008 from a Kishoreganj constituency.
He was unanimously elected Deputy Speaker in the seventh parliament in 1996, and in 2001 was elected Speaker.
In the present parliament, he was unanimously elected Speaker in January 2009.
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