DHAKA: Bangladesh's presidential election got underway on Thursday, with lawmakers voting to elect the country's 23rd president in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years.
The voting, which will continue till 5 pm local time, is taking place in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament), with 349 lawmakers eligible to cast their ballots. The election is being conducted through an open ballot.
Ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, 78, is facing Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, 84, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chairman and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance.
It is the first contested presidential election in Bangladesh since 1991, as the office had largely been filled through consensus and uncontested polls in recent decades.
The presidential election was necessitated after Mohammed Shahabuddin, a close aide of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned last month on health grounds before completing his five-year tenure.
The Election Commission subsequently announced the schedule for the election, with the voting set for August 20.
The president is elected by Members of Parliament under Bangladesh's constitutional system.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the result after completion of the counting of votes and publish it in the official gazette.
The president-elect will take the oath as Bangladesh's new president on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban.
The BNP, which was voted to power in the February 12 elections, currently commands a two-thirds majority in Parliament, putting Alamgir in a strong position to secure the presidency.