The panel backed by Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal on Wednesday pressed for a six-point demand, including manual ballot counting, to avert ‘digital manipulation and election engineering’ in the coming student union polls.
The panel named ‘Oikyoboddho Notun Projonmo’ placed the demand in a memorandum they submitted to the chief election commissioner at the Rajshai University Central Students’ Union building in the afternoon on the day.
Their other demands are: use of transparent ballot boxes to ensure transparency in the voting process, publication of a photo-based voter list to prevent fake or fraudulent votes, restricting entry to polling centres to only those with valid identity cards, effective measures to curb the influence of black money in the election, and equal enforcement and monitoring of the code of conduct for all candidates.
Meanwhile, a section of teachers and university officials on the day announced a fresh programme from September 21, demanding the reinstatement of the ward quota for their children’s admission to undergraduate courses, said a press release.
Regarding the demand charter of ‘Oikyoboddho Notun Projonmo’, the panel’s vice-president candidate Sheikh Nur Uddin Abir said that manual counting was time-consuming but doable if adequate manpower was deployed.
Asked whether his panel would boycott the polls if the demand was not met, he replied that situation would decide, ‘we do not want to boycott. We want the election to be fair’.
Abir claimed that the demands reflected the concerns of general students.
‘We are warning the commission—if our demands are ignored, it will not be JCD raising questions about neutrality, but the students themselves,’ he said.
Earlier in the day, leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-baked teachers’ forum met the election commission to give their recommendations on ensuring fairness.
Professor Abdul Alim, president of Jatiyatabadi Teachers’ Forum, said that at the Wednesday morning meeting with the election commission they had provided some recommendations as there were irregularities in the just ended DUCSU and JUCSU polls.
The teachers’ formum’s general secretary Amirul Islam told reporters that they had even suggested deferring the polls if necessary to make sure the polls was inclusive.
‘Though that was not accepted, our concern is that no situation of boycott arises, as was seen elsewhere,’ he added.
Meanwhile, at a press briefing at the RUCSU treasurer’s office, RUCSU election chief returning officer Professor Setaur Rahman announced that transparent ballot boxes would be used in the polls.
‘This was not in response to any particular demand. After internal review, we decided it is feasible and necessary,’ he said.
In a reply, chief election commissioner Professor F Nazrul Islam termed the JCD-baked panel’s demands important but questioned the feasibility of manual vote counting at this age.
‘Except for that, we will seriously consider their other demands,’ he stressed.
‘The commission is committed to holding a free and fair election,’ said the chief election commissioner, adding that the nationalist teachers’ forum’s suggestions were also part of the university’s broader effort to ensure credibility.
Meanwhile, in a press release, a section of teachers and university officials on the day announced a fresh programme, iterating their demand for the reinstatement of the abolished ward quota for their children’s admission to undergraduate courses.
They said that from September 21 they would go for a full work abstention programme under which academic and administrative work would also be boycotted if their demand was not met by today.
Supporting the demand for reintroducing the ward quota, Jatiyatabadi Teachers’ Forum president Professor Abdul Alim said that the quota facility for children and grandchildren in admission existed at other universities, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Jahangirnagar, Shahjalal, and Islamic universities.
‘Therefore, depriving our children of such institutional benefits at Rajshahi University is nothing but discrimination,’ he said.
