Counting of votes in the long-awaited Chittagong University Central Students鈥� Union election began Wednesday afternoon, following a day of peaceful voting on campus.
Official results are expected to be announced on Thursday, according to election officials.
Balloting of CUCSU began at 9:00am and continued until 4:00pm on Wednesday.
Apart from a few stray incidents, the Election Commission has said the voting process was conducted peacefully, said Professor Saidur Rahman Chowdhury, a member of the Election Commission and Head of the IT Cell.
The vote counting process may take 7 to 8 hours to complete and the formal announcement of results will be made on Thursday, he said.
The university authorities had taken extensive security measures throughout the day to ensure a fair and smooth election process.
Professor Kamal Uddin, pro-vice chancellor, administration, of the university, said 鈥楾here will be no unnecessary delay in vote counting. Each presiding officer has a photo-based voter list to verify identities, leaving no room for fraudulent voting. We have not received any formal complaints since yesterday.鈥�
Voting took place in five faculties with 15 centres designated for 15 residential halls.
A total of 689 booths were set up across 60 rooms to facilitate the voting process.
The entire process is being displayed live on 14 LED screens across the campus.
Ballots were cast on paper but the counting is being carried out using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) machines for accuracy and efficiency.
According to the Election Commission, a total of 908 candidates are contesting in this year鈥檚 CUCSU elections - 415 for central positions, representing 13 panels and independent candidates, and 493 for hall and hostel councils.
