DUCSU polls in September, schedule on 29 July

The Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) and hall union elections are set to be held once again after six years. The election schedule will be announced on 29 July, and voting will take place in the second week of September.

The university administration has beefed up security on campus in preparation for the DUCSU and hall elections.

A final meeting regarding the election schedule was held on Sunday at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building with various stakeholders. There, professor Mohammad Jasim Uddin, Chief Returning Officer for the DUCSU and hall union elections and a faculty member in the Department of Botany, announced the details of the election.

DUCSU and hall union elections were suspended for 28 years after 1990. In March 2019, elections were held, reactivating DUCSU and 18 hall unions. The committee’s term ended in 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, university halls and the campus were closed from March 2020 to September 2021. After reopening on 5 October, 2021, there were occasional demands for elections, but the administration took no steps.

Many students became vocal demanding DUCSU elections following the fall of the Awami League government during the mass uprising on 5 August last year. Subsequently, the university administration held several meetings with different student organisations and collected written proposals for reforms to the DUCSU constitution.

On 24 April, the university's highest decision-making body, the Syndicate, approved the amended constitution. A 10-member election commission was formed in mid-June. The administration is now in the final stages of preparation to organise the election.

The 2019 DUCSU and hall elections were marred by allegation of lack of transparency. That time, the student wing of the then-ruling party, Chhatra League (now banned), won 23 out of the 25 DUCSU central positions. In the hall elections, Chhatra League won the VP (Vice President) position in 12 out of 18 halls and the GS (General Secretary) position in 14 halls. Independent candidates won the rest.

At that time, the halls were under the control of Chhatra League. As a result, many student organisations demanded that polling stations be placed in academic buildings instead of halls. However, the then administration ignored those calls. On election day, Chhatra League created artificial queues in the dormitories, causing delays in voting and prompting many voters to leave without casting their votes. Additionally, pre-stamped ballots were recovered from two female halls.

Due to allegations of irregularities, most candidates except those affiliated with Chhatra League boycotted the election. Nurul Haque (now President of Gono Adhikar Parishad) was elected DUCSU VP from the Chhatra Adhikar Parishad panel, and Akhtar Hossain (now Member Secretary of Jatiya Nagorik Party) was elected Social Welfare Secretary. Though they initially raised concerns about the election, both later took office.

To avoid a repeat of the negative experience from the last student union election, the current administration has designated six neutral central polling stations.

These include: Curzon Hall Exam Centre, Physical Education Centre, Teacher-Student Centre (TSC), Dhaka University Club Centre, Senate Building Centre (Alumni Floor, Seminar Room, and Dining Room), and Udayan School and College Centre. Students from different halls will vote at designated centers.

Regarding election-related security, it was announced in the meeting that a total of 182 CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) cameras—including 50 newly installed ones—are actively monitoring the campus. Additional lighting has been installed in various locations. Surveillance by the Proctorial Mobile Team has been intensified. This team now consists of 38 members who operate on a 24/7 basis.

Nahiduzzaman Shipon, General Secretary of the Dhaka University unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, told Prothom Alo, “So far, the steps taken by the university administration have not given us hope. They have ignored various proposals for fundamental reform of the DUCSU constitution and other logical demands. In some halls—especially the female ones—a kind of repressive atmosphere still prevails. We want visible steps to ensure that the defeated forces of the 2024 uprising—Chhatra League and their allies—cannot participate in the election.”

He added that Chhatra Dal will give its final response after the election schedule is announced.