BNP candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been elected Bangladesh’s 23rd president, capping a political journey that began with student activism at the University of Dhaka in the 1960s.
Fakhrul secured 255 votes in Thursday’s presidential election, defeating Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance candidate Col (retd) Oli Ahmed, who received 88 votes. He won by a margin of 167 votes.
He is the first president to win a contested presidential election in 35 years.
From student activism to politics
Born on January 26, 1948, in Thakurgaon, Fakhrul earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Dhaka.
His political career began as a university student in the 1960s. He joined the East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU), the student wing of the East Pakistan Communist Party.
He later became general secretary of the organization’s SM Hall unit and eventually rose to become president of its Dhaka University unit in 1969, during the mass uprising against then-President Ayub Khan.
He was arrested and imprisoned for his political activities.
From teaching to government service
After completing his studies, Fakhrul began his professional career in 1972 as a lecturer at Dhaka College under the Bangladesh Civil Service’s education cadre.
He subsequently taught at several government colleges and also served as deputy director at the Directorate of Inspection and Audit. He later worked with the Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO.
In late 1979, he joined late president Ziaur Rahman’s administration as private secretary to then-deputy prime minister SA Bari. He remained in the position until Bari resigned in 1982.
Fakhrul resigned from government service in 1986 and entered active politics.
In 1988, he was elected chairman of Thakurgaon municipality as an independent candidate.
He joined the BNP during the anti-Ershad movement in the early 1990s and was appointed president of the party’s Thakurgaon district unit in 1992.
Rise through the BNP
Fakhrul was elected to parliament from Thakurgaon-1 as a BNP candidate in the 2001 parliamentary election.
From 2001 to 2006, he served as state minister for agriculture and later as state minister for civil aviation and tourism.
He contested the 2008 parliamentary election but was defeated.
His rise within the BNP continued after the party’s fifth national council on December 8, 2009, when he was appointed senior joint secretary general.
He became the party’s acting secretary general on March 20, 2011, and held the position for five years.
On March 30, 2016, he was appointed BNP secretary general, becoming one of the party’s most prominent leaders.
He remained in the position until his election as president.
Family and political background
Fakhrul is married to Rahat Ara Begum, who studied at the University of Calcutta and works for an insurance company in Dhaka. They have two daughters, Mirza Shamaruh and Mirza Safaruh.
Shamaruh studied at the University of Dhaka and later joined the university as a teacher. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Australia.
Safaruh, who also studied at the University of Dhaka, teaches at a school in Dhaka.
Fakhrul’s younger brother, Mirza Faisal Amin, is president of the Thakurgaon district BNP and has also served as mayor of Thakurgaon municipality.
His father, Mirza Ruhul Amin, was a lawyer and politician who was elected to parliament several times from Thakurgaon and served as agriculture minister.
His uncle Mirza Ghulam Hafiz was a BNP politician who served as land minister, law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, and speaker of the second parliament.
Another uncle, Wing Commander SR Mirza, served in the Mujibnagar government-in-exile during the Liberation War. He headed the Directorate of Youth Camps, which oversaw training facilities for freedom fighters.
From a student activist at Dhaka University to the secretary general of the BNP, and now the country’s president, Fakhrul’s political career spans more than five decades.