Six MPs skip presidential election, including 3 BNP lawmakers

Six members of parliament did not cast their ballots in today's (20 August) presidential election, including three BNP lawmakers, one Khelafat Majlis MP, an independent MP and Gazi Nazrul Islam, the expelled Jamaat-e-Islami member elected from Satkhira-4.

The presidential election saw BNP candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir elected the country's 23rd president with 255 votes, while Jamaat-led 11-party alliance candidate Col (retd) Oli Ahmad received 88. Of the 349 eligible MPs, 343 cast valid ballots.

The three BNP lawmakers who did not vote were Mirza Abbas, Osman Faruk and Mustafa Kamal Pasha.

According to parliamentary secretariat sources, Mirza Abbas, the MP from Dhaka-8 and a BNP Standing Committee member, had informed the speaker in writing that he would be unable to vote as he was abroad for medical treatment.

Mustafa Kamal Pasha and Osman Faruk were also unable to attend the election as they are sick and currently under treatment abroad.

The other three absentees were Gazi Nazrul Islam of Satkhira-4, Khelafat Majlis MP Abul Hasan of Sylhet-5, and independent MP Rumeen Farhana of Brahmanbaria-2.

Gazi Nazrul Islam was expelled from Jamaat after a controversial video involving him surfaced on social media.

Khelafat Majlis Secretary General Ahmad Abdul Quader said Abul Hasan is currently abroad.

'Presidential election meaningless, farce'

Rumeen Farhana has described the presidential election as "meaningless" and "a farce", saying she abstained from voting because she did not want to be part of what she considered a "predetermined process".

She made the remarks while speaking to journalists at her residence in Shahbazpur village of Sarail upazila in Brahmanbaria on Thursday (20 August).

Rumeen congratulated BNP-nominated candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on being elected president but said she chose not to vote for three reasons.

"If there is no uncertainty about the outcome of an election, it cannot be called an election. It is a nomination. Everyone in Bangladesh knew what the result would be. So, I do not want to call this an election," she said.

Explaining her second reason, Rumeen criticised the continued application of Article 70 of the Constitution, under which MPs can lose their seats for voting against their party.

She said there had been a longstanding movement to amend Article 70 so that lawmakers could exercise their voting rights independently while remaining members of their political parties.

"But we saw repeated warnings that BNP MPs could not vote outside the party's position under any circumstances. If they did, they would lose their parliamentary seats. Then what was the point of making such big statements about Article 70?" she said.

Rumeen also questioned why MPs were not given freedom to vote independently in the presidential election if the government now intends to amend Article 70.

"Immediately after the vote ended, the home minister said that we would amend Article 70 now and MPs would be able to vote outside their party's position if they wished. Then why were they not given that right in this election?" she said.

As her third reason, Rumeen said all political parties could have agreed on a single candidate for president.

She said there should also be a balance of powers between the president and the prime minister, referring to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's 2016 proposal and the party's 31-point reform agenda.

"We could have nominated one person for president through consensus among all parties. We have not heard any discussion on bringing balance to the powers of the president and prime minister," she said.

"Considering everything, I felt that I did not want to be part of this farce," she added.