Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who is a former ally of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned on Friday, citing serious health issues, according to a statement from his office.
Shahabuddin, 76, has served as the country's largely ceremonial president since April 2023. His tenure included the political turmoil that followed after Hasina's flight to India after a student-led uprising ousted her government in 2024.
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His resignation comes five months before Hasina's planned return, leaving her without any allies in high office.
Hasina's Awami League party remains banned, while many of its leaders and activists have either been jailed or gone into hiding since the deadly student-led uprising that toppled her administration in 2024.
“Recent medical examinations have diagnosed me with a condition known as Autonomic Neuropathy. Due to this condition, I occasionally experience momentary loss of consciousness,” Shahabuddin said in a statement released by his press secretary.
The president's office said the speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, Bangladesh's national parliament, will discharge the duties of the presidency until a successor is elected. “I am seriously ill … therefore, I am unable to perform my duty of the constitutional post,” Shahabuddin said in a letter to Parliament Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed on Friday.
The Associated Press reported that Ahmed had accepted Shahabuddin's resignation.
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“According to the Constitution, the president's resignation becomes effective upon submission of a signed letter to the speaker,” the former president's spokesperson, Sarwar Alam, said.
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