Shahabuddin Chuppu elected as Bangladesh’s new President

Mohammad Shahabuddin Chuppu, a former judge and freedom fighter will be Bangladesh’s new President, the Chief Election Commission has announced.

Chuppu, 74, was elected unopposed on Monday and will replace President Mohammad Abdul Hamid.

The Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal declared Chuppu, Awami League Advisory Council member and the party’s nominee, the President-elect of Bangladesh unopposed after scrutinising his nomination papers submitted on Sunday.

He became President by default as there was no rival candidate.

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A gazette was issued on Monday on the appointment of the new Bangladesh President by the Chief Election Commissioner. Chuppu will be the 22nd President of Bangladesh.

The tenure of incumbent Hamid, the longest-serving president of Bangladesh, will end on April 23, and according to the Constitution, he cannot hold a third term.

Senior Awami League leader and seven-time lawmaker Hamid were elected Bangladesh president in the last two elections.

He was sworn in for his second term on April 24, 2018.

Hamid greeted the newly elected president over the phone and wished him success on Monday.

After his retirement as a district and sessions judge, Chuppu served as one of the commissioners of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission.

He later joined politics and became a member of the Awami League Advisory Council, which comprises senior party leaders and technocrats.

However, Chuppu will have to relinquish the party post to become the titular head of the State.

Born in the northwestern Pabna district, Chuppu was a leader of Awami League’s student and youth wings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

He also took part 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.

The coup also led to the toppling of the Awami League government. In 1982, he was inducted into the country’s judicial service.

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Chuppu served as the coordinator of the Bangabandhu murder trial when Awami League returned to power in the 1996 elections.

His wife Rebeka Sultana is the former joint secretary to the government.