The authorities on Tuesday announced that the elections to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union would be held on September 9.
The chief returning officer for DUCSU polls, Professor Mohammad Zashim Uddin, announced the schedule at a press conference at the Dhaka University’s Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building.
Though the elections are meant to be held annually, the last DUCSU elections were held over six years ago, on March 11, 2019. The last DUCSU elections were held after a gap of 28 years.
Immediately after Tuesday’s announcement of the election schedule, a group of students gathered in front of the Senate Bhaban, expressed their joy, and brought out a procession to mark the announcement.
According to the schedule, a draft voter list will be published today, and the last date for raising objections regarding the voter list is August 8. The final voter list will be published on August 11.
The nomination forms will be distributed between August 12 and August 18. The aspirant candidates will be able to submit their nomination papers until 3:00pm on August 19.
The preliminary list of candidates will be published on August 21 after scrutinising the nomination papers on August 20.
The last date for withdrawal of candidature is August 24, and the final list of candidates will be published on August 25.
The voters will be able to exercise their voting rights between 8:00am and 3:00pm on September 9, and results will be announced the same day.
The central union elections and the elections to the hall unions will be held simultaneously.
The chief returning officer said that no one would be allowed to cast his or her vote without an ID card or a pay-in slip.
For the first time, the voters have been divided based on their respective halls and assigned to six designated polling centres.
Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad’s Nurul Haque Nur was elected vice-president, and Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Golam Rabbani was elected general secretary in the last DUCSU elections, the seventh of such kind after the country’s independence, held on March 11, 2019.
Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s Amanullah Aman and Khairul Kabir Khokan were elected vice-president and general secretary, respectively, in the sixth DUCSU elections after independence, held in 1990.
On Monday, the authorities announced that elections to the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union would be held on September 15, marking the first such polls since 1989.