Chhatra Dal boycotts JUCSU election, alleges election engineering

Chhatra Dal has announced a boycott of the Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union (JUCSU) election, citing irregularities in the voting process and other related issues.

The General Secretary (GS) candidate from the Chhatra Dal-backed panel, Tanjila Hossain (Boishakhi) made the announcement at a press conference held in the guest room of Maulana Bhasani Hall at 4:00pm today, Thursday.

Tanjila Hossain made several allegations regarding the JUCSU election process.

She claimed that at Fazilatunnesa Hall, the ink applied to voters' fingers was coming off, and a ballot paper was found on the floor. Due to these issues, voting was halted for two hours.

She also alleged that in one hall, the Vice President (VP) candidate from their panel was not allowed to enter, and in Tajuddin Hall, voting was suspended because the voter list lacked photographs.

She further alleged that the ballot papers were printed by a company owned by a Jamaat-e-Islami leader, and that Chhatra Dal panel agents were not allowed to be present in any of the halls.

Questioning the issue of extra ballots, Tanjila said: "Our concern is, were 10–20 per cent of extra ballots printed by a company linked to a Jamaat leader secretly handed over to Shibir? Are those fake ballots being used to cast votes by barring our candidates and agents from the halls? These incidents clearly prove that the JUCSU election has been completely engineered. This is not a fair election by any means — it is an election of total fraud and mockery."

Tanjila Hossain further stated: “We had demanded that the election be conducted without using ballot papers printed by the company owned by a Jamaat leader. But the Vice Chancellor and the Returning Officer did not accept our demand. A fair election is not possible with ballots supplied by Jamaat. The most alarming issue is that the responsibility of monitoring the polling centres through CCTV was also given to the same company owned by the Jamaat leader. This has effectively allowed Shibir to monitor the entire election process inside the polling centres.”

Tanjila Hossain alleged: "The university administration has collaborated with Jamaat-Shibir to engineer the election. This election does not reflect the true will of the students. In protest of these irregularities, we are being forced to boycott the election."

At the time, the panel’s Vice President (VP) candidate, Sheikh Sadi Hasan, along with other Chhatra Dal leaders, were also present.