President Mohammed Shahabuddin has said that he plans to step down midway through his term after the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for February 12 next year, as he feels humiliated by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government. 

He made the remarks in an interview with Reuters, published on Thursday.

‘I am keen to leave. I am interested to go out,’ local newspapers reported, quoting the Bangladesh president as saying in the interview from his official residence in Dhaka. 

‘Until elections are held, I should continue,’ Shahabuddin said, adding that he was upholding his position ‘because of the constitutionally held presidency’.

Shahabuddin, 75, had been elected unopposed for a five-year term in 2023 as a nominee of the Awami League, activities of which are now banned for atrocities during the July uprising that forced the fall of the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024.

The president said that Yunus had not met him for nearly seven months, his press department had been taken away, and that, in September, his portraits were removed from Bangladeshi embassies around the world, according to media reports based on the interview taken through WhatsApp.