Bangladesh's political landscape shifted again on Friday after President Mohammed Shahabuddin resigned before completing his five-year term, ending months of speculation over his future as fresh attention turned to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's plan to return home despite facing a death sentence.
The 76-year-old president submitted his resignation, citing ill health, according to officials at his office. His decision came just days after Hasina told Reuters she would return to Bangladesh from exile in India, where she fled after her government was removed during the 2024 student-led uprising.
Her announcement renewed pressure on Shahabuddin, one of the last senior figures linked to Hasina's administration who had remained in office after the change of government. Sources had earlier told BBC Bangla that leaders of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party had been pushing for his resignation.
Officials from the president's office said Shahabuddin signed his resignation letter on Friday afternoon before forwarding it to Parliament Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad.
The speaker is now returning from Thailand, where he had travelled for medical treatment, after cutting short the visit. He will take over the duties of the presidency until Parliament elects a new head of state.
Bangladesh's Constitution requires lawmakers to elect a new president within 90 days.
Shahabuddin had been expected to remain in office until 2028 and was among the few officials from Hasina's administration who survived the sweeping changes that followed the July 2024 uprising.
After Hasina was forced from power, many senior government officials, police commanders and other key office holders linked to her administration were removed. Shahabuddin, however, remained in office through the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and continued serving even after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secured a landslide victory in the February general election.
Although he stayed on, Shahabuddin had publicly expressed his desire to leave office. Speaking to Reuters last December, he said he had felt "humiliated" by the interim government after portraits of him were removed from Bangladeshi embassies and consulates without notice.
At the time, he said he would continue serving until elections were held and leave it to the incoming government to decide whether he should remain in office.
His resignation comes as Hasina prepares to return to Bangladesh to face charges linked to the deadly crackdown on protesters during the 2024 unrest.
Earlier this month, she told Reuters that she and her political allies would return from exile in India and appear before the courts.
The International Crimes Tribunal last year found Hasina guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against demonstrators.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, at least 1,400 people died during the unrest that eventually forced her to flee the country.
The tribunal later sentenced her to death in absentia.
Since then, the Awami League has been barred from political activities, while many of its senior members have been jailed.
"My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression," she told Reuters during the interview earlier this month.
"If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed."