The death of a Jahangirnagar University teacher while performing duties in the JU Central Students’ Union and hall elections, on Friday sparked anger among her fellow teachers and students who blamed the administration’s decision to abandon machine counting of the votes in the polls for the teacher’s demise.
Jannatul Ferdous, a lecturer at the fine arts department of the university, collapsed at the entrance of the Senate Hall on Friday morning while serving as a Pritilata Hall polling officer for the September 11 elections, said Shamim Reza, head of the department.
She was rushed to Enam Medical College Hospital at Savar but was declared dead on arrival.
‘She suddenly collapsed at the door during the counting of votes in the morning,’ Reza said.
Proctor AKM Rashidul Alam, who also serves as the member secretary of the JUCSU election commission, said that ballot counting for all halls could not be completed overnight due to the absence of polling agents and exhaustion among staff.
‘Counting for Pritilata Hall resumed this morning. Jannatul came with her colleagues to the centre and fell down at the entrance.’
‘An ambulance was arranged immediately, but we later learnt that she had already passed away,’ he said.
The incident cast a pall of grief across the campus, he added, expressing condolences to the bereaved family.
Rashidul said that Ferdous had not been on duty for overnight vote counting and had joined the counting from her residence on Friday morning.
Jannatul’s first Namaz-e-Janaza was held in front of the old arts building at Jahangirnagar University after the jumma prayers. She will be buried today in her home district of Sherpur.
University teachers and staff said that uninterrupted working and the move to scrap optical mark recognition machines in favour of manual counting had created excessive stress on them.
‘The administration is responsible for my colleague’s death,’ said professor Sultana Akter, warden of Nawab Foyzunnesa Hall.
‘If the counting had been done with machines, perhaps we would not have lost her. We worked under inhuman pressure for the past three days without proper rest,’ she said.
She added that Jannatul had been called to come from home early in the morning after working late the previous night.
‘She rushed to the Senate Hall, but at the entrance she collapsed. This tragedy is the result of mismanagement,’ professor Sultana said.
The decision to move ballot counting to the Senate Hall, instead of conducting it at individual halls, also drew criticism from faculty members who said that the centralised process caused unnecessary delays, overcrowding and added strain on staff.
