President-elect Mohammed Shahabuddin will take the oath of office on April 24 as President Md Abdul Hamid's term is coming to an end on April 23.
President's Press Secretary Joynal Abedin said preparations are being made for the swearing-in ceremony of the new president as it will be held at 11am on April 24 at Bangabhaban.
Awami League candidate Shahabuddin was elected unopposed in the presidential election. He will be the 22nd president of Bangladesh as the successor of Abdul Hamid.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader proposed the name of the presidential candidate while Joint General Secretary Hasan Mahmud supported it.
Born in Pabna in 1949, Shahabuddin is a freedom fighter.
During his student life, Shahabuddin served as an activist and president of Pabna Chhatra League and later handled the responsibility of Pabna Jubo League as its president. In 1971, he was the convenor of Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad of Pabna and also actively participated in the Liberation War.
He was imprisoned following the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. He was later appointed as the Law Ministry's coordinator in the Bangabandhu assassination case.
In 1982, he joined the BCS (Judicial) Department, and in 1995, he was elected general secretary of the Judicial Service Association.
He served as the chairman of the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which investigated murders, rapes, thefts and other crimes by BNP-Jamaat alliance's activists and leaders following the 2001 general election.
He also worked as a district and sessions judge and retired in 2006.
He was a commissioner at the Anti-Corruption Commission from 2011 to 2016.
In the previous National Council of Bangladesh Awami League, he served as election commissioner.
He earned his LLB from Rajshahi University in 1975 and later completed his MSc from the same institution.
Md Shahabuddin's wife, Prof Dr Rebecca Sultana, is a former joint secretary of the government.
The current president, Abdul Hamid, is leaving Bangabhaban on April 24 after serving two consecutive terms.
The longest-serving president in the history of Bangladesh, Abdul Hamid was the acting president after the death of Zillur Rahman in March 2013. He was elected to his first term in April 2013 and re-elected to his second term in 2018.
Abdul Hamid was elected as a member of parliament from Mymensingh 18 as the youngest person elected in the 1970 Pakistan general election. He was elected as the member of parliament for Kishoreganj 5 from the Awami League in the general elections of 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2009.
For his contribution to the Liberation War in 1971, he was awarded the Independence Award in 2013.
After his term ends, Abdul Hamid may move to a house in Nikunjo, Dhaka, said Joynal Abedin. However, two sources in the president's family said a flat in the Cantonment area is also being prepared for him.
