Khandaker Abdul Muktadir and Dr. Reza Kibria have been unofficially elected as Members of Parliament in Bangladesh’s 13th National Election held on February 12. Muktadir, the BNP chairman’s adviser and party-nominated candidate, won the Sylhet-1 constituency with 176,936 votes, defeating Jamaat’s Maulana Habibur Rahman, who received 134,983 votes. Dr. Reza Kibria, who recently joined the BNP and contested from Habiganj-1, secured 111,999 votes, while his closest rival, Maulana Md. Sirajul Islam of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, obtained 56,132 votes.

Both Muktadir and Kibria are following in the political footsteps of their fathers. Muktadir is the son of Khandaker Abdul Malik, a BNP MP elected in 1991. Dr. Reza Kibria is the son of former finance minister and diplomat Shah AMS Kibria, who served as UN ESCAP secretary-general before joining the Awami League in 1992. Shah AMS Kibria was elected MP from Habiganj-3 in 2001 and was killed in a grenade attack at a public meeting in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.