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| Turnout | 56.51% | |||||||||||||||
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| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of the People's Republic of Bangladesh |
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 Bangladeshportal |
Presidential elections were held in Bangladesh on 15 November 1981. [1] The result was a victory for the incumbent acting President Abdus Sattar of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who received 65.5% of the vote, beating his principal challenger Kamal Hossain of the Awami League. Voter turnout was 56.5%. [2]
In May 1981 the President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated by a faction of officers of the Bangladesh Army. Following the assassination Vice President Abdus Sattar automatically became the acting President of Bangladesh, despite being in hospital at the time. [3] Speaking to foreign reporters in Bangabhaban on 4 June, Satter announced that in line with the constitution, elections would be held within 180 days of the death of the former president, to "foil any conspiracy to disturb the democratic process in the country." [3]
According to the New York Times, much of the campaign revolved around the legacy of the two late leaders of the BNP and Awami League, Ziaur Rahman and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On the day before the elections, the newspaper reported "Despite the lively participation of 26 candidates, the Bangladesh presidential election campaign that ended here today has been dominated almost entirely by the auras of two dead adversaries. The two - Sheik Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence and was killed in 1975, and Gen. Ziaur Rahman, who governed for five years until he was murdered by army officers last May 30 - were the centerpieces at huge rallies that the two major parties staged here in the capital." [4]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdus Sattar | Bangladesh Nationalist Party | 14,203,958 | 65.52 | |
| Kamal Hossain | Awami League | 5,636,113 | 26.00 | |
| Hafezzi Huzur | Independent | 388,741 | 1.79 | |
| M. A. G. Osmani | Independent | 293,637 | 1.35 | |
| M. A. Jalil | Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal | 248,769 | 1.15 | |
| Muzaffar Ahmed | NAP (M)–CPB | 224,188 | 1.03 | |
| 33 other candidates | 682,154 | 3.15 | ||
| Total | 21,677,560 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 21,677,560 | 98.49 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 332,524 | 1.51 | ||
| Total votes | 22,010,084 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 38,951,014 | 56.51 | ||
| Source: Nohlen et al. | ||||
Sattar was overthrown in a bloodless coup d'état in March 1982 by the Army Chief of Staff, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who assumed the Presidency in 1983, until being deposed himself in a popular mass uprising in 1990.
Politics of Bangladesh takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Constitution of Bangladesh was written in 1972 and has undergone seventeen amendments.
Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination. He was the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and served as its chairman until his assassination. He previously served as the second chief of army staff from 1975 to 1978 with a minor break.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is a major political party in Bangladesh. Founded on 1 September 1978 by the late Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman, with a view of uniting people with a nationalist ideology, BNP later came out as one of the two most dominant parties in Bangladesh, along with its archrival Awami League. Initially being a big tent centrist party, it moved towards more right-wing politics later.
The President of Bangladesh officially the president of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is the head of state of Bangladesh and commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the president of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990, heading a military dictatorship.
Mohammad Mohammadullah was the third president of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Mohammadullah became the Acting President on 24 December 1973, was elected president on 24 January 1974, and took oath of office on 27 January 1974. He remained President until 25 January 1975.
Abdus Sattar was a Bangladeshi statesman. A leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he served as the President of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the Vice President of Bangladesh. A jurist by profession, Abdus Sattar held numerous constitutional and political offices in British India, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. He was a cabinet minister, supreme court judge, and chief election commissioner.
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the fourth president of Bangladesh from 15 August to 6 November 1975, after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He took on the role of president immediately after the assassination, praised the assassins as "sons of the sun" and put cabinet ministers loyal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in jail.
Shah Azizur Rahman was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh. However, he was the subject of considerable controversy for his collaboration with the Pakistan Army against the struggle for the independence of Bangladesh.
Kamal Hossain, better known as Dr. Kamal is a founding leader, lawyer and politician of Bangladesh. He is known as the "Father of the Bangladeshi Constitution" and regarded as an icon of secular democracy in the Indian subcontinent. Hossain currently heads his own law firm in Dhaka. He retired from political activities and from the post of president of Gano Forum in October 2023.
Bangladesh has undergone several changes of government since the Proclamation of Independence in 1971. Between the first recorded uprising in August 1975 and the last known attempt in December 2011, Bangladesh has been through as many as 29 military coups.
Syed Faruque Rahman was a coup member involved in toppling the Sheikh Mujib regime in Bangladesh. He was convicted and hanged on 28 January 2010 along with co-conspirators Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Dhaka Central Jail, Old Dhaka, for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder and first President of Bangladesh. Syed Faruque Rahman and his close ally Khondaker Abdur Rashid were the chief organisers of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He was 2IC of the 1st Bengal Lancers Regiment of the Bangladesh Army who led a group of junior army officers in-order to overthrew the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and installed Khondaker Mushtaque Ahmed as President of Bangladesh.
Ziaur Rahman, the sixth president of Bangladesh, was assassinated by a faction of officers of Bangladesh Army, on 30 May 1981, in the south-eastern port city of Chittagong. Rahman went to Chittagong to arbitrate in a clash between the local leaders of his political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. On the night of 30 May, a group of officers commandeered the Chittagong Circuit House, a government residence where Rahman was staying, shooting him and several others.
The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal is a political party in Bangladesh. The party was founded by Serajul Alam Khan. The party was very dominant during 1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency.
1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1981st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 981st year of the 2nd millennium, the 81st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1980s decade.
The history of Bangladesh (1971–present) refers to the period after the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
The 1982 Bangladeshi military coup d'état deposed the civilian government headed by the President of Bangladesh Abdus Sattar and brought to power the Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army Lt. Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad. After serving initially as the Chief Martial Law Administrator, Ershad assumed the post of president in 1983 and ruled until 1990.
Hasanul Haq Inu is a Bangladeshi politician and the former Minister of Information of Bangladesh. He leads a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and was involved in a Marxist insurgency in the 1970s.
Muhammad Yusuf Ali was a Bangladesh politician. He was the first minister for Education and Cultural Affairs in the first cabinet of Bangladesh.
The 3 November 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état was a military coup d'état led by Major General Khaled Mosharraf to remove the assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from power.
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