Announce DUCSU poll schedule apace

DUCSU and Hall Sangsad elections were last held in 2019 which were questionable during the Awami League government. The doggedness of the university authorities that time could not meet the expectations of the 43,000 students of Dhaka University who were hopeful and enthusiastic about the polls held after almost 28 years.

From the beginning, the notion of the Dhaka University authorities regarding the DUCSU elections was one-sided, biased and in some cases suspicious. The prerequisite for making any election fair and free is a level playing field; but the Dhaka University authorities have always ignored the demands of opposition student organizations, while defending all the demands of the pro-government student organization.

This time, the roadmap for the DUCSU elections has been published again during the new political settlement. Although the roadmap has been published, it is not known when the elections will be held. According to the roadmap, the Election Commission will be formed by the middle of next month (May). The Election Commission will announce the schedule. However, the roadmap does not mention when the schedule will be announced and when the elections will be held.

According to news published in the media on Wednesday (April 16), the current administration of Dhaka University believes that DUCSU is an important part of the administration. Students are also quite interested in DUCSU elections. That is why the current administration is working sincerely to organize DUCSU elections. The university administration has been in talks with various stakeholders since December 2024 to conduct a fair and acceptable DUCSU election. The university administration has published a roadmap with the steps taken by the university administration to organize the election in a fair, beautiful and smooth manner.

After the roadmap was announced, the Student Rights Council held a press conference in front of the DUCSU building on Wednesday afternoon. The Student Rights Council demanded that a specific timeframe for DUCSU elections be announced by May and that the organization hold 'acceptable, participatory and competitive' DUCSU elections by June. Other student organizations also have the same demand. Student organizations claim that one of the commitments of the July Uprising is to hold student council elections in all universities, including Dhaka University. It is very important to hold the central student council elections of Dhaka University before the national elections.

Among them, many political parties are demanding that local elections be held before the national elections. No date has been announced yet for when the national elections will be held. According to the guidelines of the interim government, it can be estimated that national elections may be held in the middle of next year. In the meantime, it would be good if the DUCSU elections were held in the middle of this year. Then the students and administration of Dhaka University will be active. This will have an impact on other universities as well. We want the date of the DUCSU elections to be announced quickly, not just limited to the promise of forming a roadmap or election commission.