The elections to the central and hall students’ unions of the University of Dhaka which have already been mired in controversy have run into further controversy after a private television channel reported that the ballot papers for the elections, which took place on September 9, were printed and kept in an unprotected state at a printer’s at the Gausul Azam Market, a road apart from the campus. The panel backed by the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, won 23 out of the 28 positions, including those of the vice-president, general secretary and assistant general secretary, in the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union, which took place after a gap of six years. The election came to be mired in allegations of irregularities, such as rigging and electoral code of conduct breaches on the polling day. Manipulation was alleged in vote counting done with optical mark recognition scanners. Candidates and general students have also questioned the neutrality of the election commission both before and after polling.
With the television reportage that showed a huge number of ballot papers were printed and kept at the university’s neighbouring market with no administrative oversight having gone viral on September 25, it is imperative that the DUCSU election commission, the university for that matter, should set up a commission to independently investigate what went around the ballot paper printing and make public its report. The university, which has claimed that it invested a single company having the capacity of printing ballot papers and supplying the scanners with both the jobs, brushed aside the incident in which, as the report shows, the printers say that they had printed the ballots and cut the papers for payment two days before the elections. Whilst the chief returning officer of the DUCSU elections has, however, sought to say that the company tasked with the job has kept him in the dark about the printing of ballot papers at Gausul Azam Market, the company owner has sought to say that he had been in China that time and his employees were responsible for that. The situation warrants that the authorities set up an independent commission to thoroughly investigate the matter. But the chief returning officer at night on September 25 said that they were looking into the issue. Such a proposition is untenable as a credible investigation would not be forthcoming with the authorities that are mired in allegations looking into the issue.
The university should, therefore, set up an independent commission to thoroughly investigate the matter as the students who fought for a transition to democracy after 15 years of the authoritarian Awami League rule deserve meaningful elections held in a democratic manner.
