Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin said on Thursday he plans to resign midway through his term, telling Reuters he has felt “humiliated” and sidelined by the interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Speaking to Reuters via WhatsApp from his official residence in Dhaka, the 75-year-old leader said he would remain in office only until the February 12 parliamentary election, after which he intends to step down.
Though the presidency is largely ceremonial, Shahabuddin’s role became unexpectedly prominent in August 2024 when a student-led uprising forced long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to New Delhi after parliament was dissolved. This left Shahabuddin — elected unopposed in 2023 as the Awami League’s nominee — as the final constitutional authority in a nation of 173 million people. The Awami League has since been barred from contesting the upcoming vote.
Shahabuddin told Reuters that Yunus has effectively marginalised him over the past several months. He said the interim government cut off his press department, declined to meet him for nearly seven months and ordered the sudden removal of his portraits from Bangladeshi embassies and consulates around the world. “A wrong message goes to the people that perhaps the president is going to be eliminated. I felt very much humiliated,” he said, adding that he wrote to Yunus seeking clarification but received no reply. “My voice has been stifled.”
Reuters reported that Yunus’s press advisers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the president’s accusations. Shahabuddin emphasised that he intends to remain in his position only until election day, saying, “Until elections are held, I should continue… I am upholding my position because of the constitutionally held presidency.” He also noted that although some student protesters earlier demanded he step down, no political party has recently pressed him to resign.
Shahabuddin confirmed to Reuters that he is in regular contact with Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, whose troops stayed in the barracks during last year’s violent anti-Hasina protests, sealing the prime minister’s fate. He said the general has been clear he has no intention of seizing power, despite the military’s long and complicated history in Bangladeshi politics. Zaman has publicly stated he wants democratic rule restored.
Opinion surveys cited by Reuters suggest that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami — former coalition partners that governed from 2001 to 2006 — are currently the frontrunners for forming the next government. When asked whether Hasina had attempted to contact him following her departure to India, Shahabuddin declined to respond, stressing instead that he has remained independent of any political party since assuming the presidency.
