Bangladesh President Shahabuddin resigns under pressure, weeks after Hasina announces return to face death sentence

President Mohammed Shahabuddin of Bangladesh resigned on Friday, halfway through his five-year term, citing the need for long-term medical treatment. The 76-year-old submitted his resignation letter to Parliament Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, who accepted it and assumed the role of interim president under the constitution. An election for a successor must be held within 90 days.

It is not possible for me to perform the duties of an important constitutional post like the president. I need long-term treatment.

Shahabuddin, a trusted follower of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, had been under mounting pressure to step down since her government was toppled in August 2024. Student protesters who led the uprising branded him a collaborator and demanded his arrest. The National Citizen Party, formed by student leaders, campaigned against him, and sources told BBC Bangla that leaders of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party had pressed for his resignation.

Hasina's downfall and conviction

Sheikh Hasina fled to India in August 2024 after mass student-led protests against civil service job quotas escalated into a wider anti-government movement. Around 1,400 people were killed in the subsequent crackdown, according to the United Nations. Last November, the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh convicted Hasina in absentia of allowing lethal force against demonstrators and sentenced her to death. Her Awami League party was banned, and many of its leaders were jailed or went into hiding.

An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus ruled for 18 months before Tarique Rahman, son of Hasina's archrival Khaleda Zia, won a landslide victory in February 2026. Shahabuddin, appointed by Hasina in April 2023, remained in the largely ceremonial post but told Reuters last December that he felt "humiliated" by the interim administration and was eager to leave.

Hasina's planned return

Shahabuddin's resignation came weeks after Hasina announced in a Reuters interview that she intended to return to Bangladesh in December to face the charges, which she denies.

My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.

Her announcement has heightened political uncertainty. The ousted prime minister, once respected as a pro-democracy reformer who helped end military rule in 1990, saw her 15-year tenure increasingly marred by accusations of corruption and authoritarianism.

Constitutional transition

Under Bangladesh's constitution, the speaker of parliament serves as acting president until lawmakers elect a successor within 90 days. Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad cut short a medical trip to Thailand to return to Dhaka and assume the role. Home minister Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters on Thursday that the government had not instructed the president to resign and that the constitution permits a president to step down voluntarily.

Shahabuddin's departure removes one of Hasina's last remaining allies from a position of institutional power, as the country braces for her potential return and the legal and political confrontation it would bring.