The commission for the elections to the Rajshahi University Central Students鈥� Union, hall unions, and five posts of senate student representatives on Tuesday decided to include the freshers in the voter list.
The commission came up with the move following weeks-long protests by leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, demanding inclusion of freshers in the voter list.
At a press conference on聽聽 Tuesday, RUCSU chief election commissioner Professor F Nazrul Islam said that in an emergency meeting the commission decided to include the freshers in the voter list, following demands from various student organisations.
鈥榃e have consulted all the student organisations and aspirants, and on the basis of their opinions, we have decided to include freshers in the voter lists,鈥� he said, adding that the elections, however, would be held on September 25 as scheduled.
Professor F Nazrul Islam said that they had also extended the deadline for distributing nomination papers by one more day, and rescheduled the submission deadline as well.
According to the revised schedule, interested candidates will be able to collect the nomination papers till Wednesday, while the deadline for submitting the nomination papers has been rescheduled for September 7.
Following scrutiny, the preliminary list of candidates will be published on September 10, while the final list of candidates will be released on September 14.
The commission first announced the election schedule on July 28, with nominations originally set to begin on August 17, but the programme was postponed on the eve of distribution.
The revised schedule extended nomination distribution multiple times, most recently until September 2, before this latest extension till September 3.
The inclusion of first-year students marks a major concession to Chhatra Dal, which had staged protests and even stormed into the RUCSU election commission office, over their demand for letting freshers vote in the September polls.
