For the Chittagong University student union elections, total 474 aspiring candidates have collected nomination forms for the central students’ union polls, while 589 students collected forms for the residential hall union polls.
The deadline for distribution of the nomination forms ended on Tuesday.
The Chittagong University Central Students’ Union, CUCSU in short, has 28 posts, while the 14 residential halls and one hostel will have their own unions.
Chief election commissioner Professor Dr Monir Uddin confirmed the figures on Tuesday evening.
According to the commission, Suhrawardy Hall had 72 forms collected, Shaheed Farhad Hall 57, Atish Dipankar Hall 47, Shah Amanat Hall 44, AF Rahman Hall 42, Shahjalal Hall 41, Bijoy-24 Hall 39, Masterda Suriya Sen Hall 38, Alaol Hall 38, Deshnetri Begum Khaleda Zia Hall 37, Shaheed Abdur Rab Hall 37, Pritilata Hall 33, Shamsunnahar Hall 25, Nawab Faizunnesa Hall 14, and Shilpi Rashid Chowdhury Hostel 25.
Earlier in the day, the leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, collected nomination forms individually rather than as panels.
University Chhatra Dal leaders, who took forms from the CUCSU election office around 2:00pm, said that decisions on panels or alliances would be made based on instructions from the central leadership.
CU Chhatra Dal general secretary Abdullah Al Noman said ‘We have collected nomination forms to take part in the CUCSU election. But no decision has yet been made regarding our panel or alliance. These decisions will be taken according to the instructions of the central leadership, and then we will inform everyone.’
Expressing concern over a credible CUCSU polls, he also said, ‘We are concerned about a fair election. This administration is completely merged with Jamaat-Shibir. Even so, we will take part in this election. We expect a fair election’.
Later, around 3:00pm, Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders also collected forms individually.
University Chhatra Shibir president Mohammad Ali said, ‘Our panel members have for now collected nomination forms individually. Our panel will be officially announced tomorrow (Wednesday)’.
Meanwhile, he also expressed concern about a fair election, ‘Sixty per cent of the election conducting committee staff are linked to one political group. We doubt whether the election will be fair. However, we hope that students will resist any irregularities and vote rigging’.
Satisfied so far with the atmosphere leading up to the polls, chief election commissioner Professor Monir Uddin said, ‘The distribution of CUCSU nomination forms is taking place in a festive environment. So far, no candidate has created any chaos. We hope we will be able to conduct a fair and peaceful election’.
According to the final voter list, total 27,634 students are eligible to vote.
As per the election schedule, deadline for nomination form submission is September 17, following which scrutiny will be carried out on September 18.
The preliminary list of candidates will be published on September 21. The deadline for withdrawal has been fixed for September 23.
The final list of candidates will be announced on September 25.
Polling is scheduled for October 12 from 9:00am to 4:00pm, when students from 54 departments and institutes will cast their votes at the polling centres to be established at the academic buildings.
Chittagong University, established in 1966, has held CUCSU elections only six times: in 1970, 1972, 1974, 1979, 1981 and 1990.
In 1981, a full panel of Islami Chhatra Shibir won, while the last election in 1990 saw leaders from Bangladesh Chhatra League, student wing of Awami League, and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal elected.
Following the killing of Sarbadaliya Chhatra Oikya leader Farukuzzaman Faruk in December 1990, CUCSU activities were suspended.
The coming election will be held for the first time in 35 years.