Students’ march towards EC over Dhaka city polls deferment foiled

Police on Wednesday afternoon obstructed a group of Dhaka University students when they tried to march towards the election commission (EC) demanding deferment of the polls to two Dhaka city corporations billed for 30 January.

The students gathered in front of Raju Memorial Sculpture on the campus around 1:00pm and staged demonstrations carrying placards, reports news agency UNB.

When the students started marching towards the EC office around 1:30pm as per their previously declared programmes, police obstructed them at Shahbagh intersection.

Following this, the students took position at the intersection and have been continuing their protests.

Earlier on Tuesday, the students blocked the busy intersection around 5:00pm after the High Court turned down a writ petition seeking its directive to defer the elections to Dhaka south (DSCC) and north (DNCC) city corporations.

The court passed the order considering the progress in the election process and the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations scheduled to take place on 2 February.

On 6 January, advocate Ashoke Kumar Ghosh, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ seeking its directive to defer the polls as Saraswati Puja, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Hindu community, will be celebrated across the country on the day.

On 22 December last year, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda announced the polls schedule fixing 30 January as the voting date.