Rivals reject Dhaka University poll results as Jamaat’s student wing sweeps key posts

Dhaka: Several student leaders on Wednesday rejected the results of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election, calling them a “planned fraud” as the Chhatra Shibir’s Shadik Kayem has been elected vice president (VP), local media reported.

Chhatra Shibir is the student wing of the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Voting took place on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The election result on Wednesday declared that Chhatra Shibir won 23 out of 28 posts in the central committee, including vice-president and general secretary posts, according to a leading Bangladeshi daily, The Business Standard.

Shibir candidates Abu Shadik Kayem was elected vice president, SM Farhad general secretary, and Mohiuddin Khan assistant general secretary (AGS).

Several candidates raised allegations of electoral irregularities during the election. Abidul Islam Khan, the BNP-backed vice president candidate, and independent candidate Umama Fatema, along with leaders from other panels, boycotted the election.

They claimed that the Shibir alliance won the polls with the support of the university administration.

As Kayem was leading earlier in the day, Khan took to his social media, stating that the results will be “rigged”, adding, “Keep the figures as you wish. I reject this planned farce.”

Meanwhile, Umama Fatema, also a former spokesperson of the Students Against Discrimination, who led last year’s July protests, also called the election rigged.

“Boycott! Boycott! I hereby reject Ducsu. A shamelessly rigged election. After August 5, the Dhaka University administration has brought shame upon the nation. An administration run by Shibir loyalists,” she said in her social media post.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bangladesh’s Awami League party accused university authorities “backed by Muhammad Yunus” of pre-filling ballots to hand victory to “Pakistan-backed Chhatra Shibir”.

Calling the election a farce, the party alleged that voters who arrived to cast their ballots were handed slips with votes already marked in the names of Shibir-backed candidates SM Farhad and Shadiq Kayem.

“I went with my friend to vote. The ballot we received was already marked for Shibir candidates. When my friend confronted the polling officer at Table No. 1, instead of apologising, he turned against her — intimidating her, questioning her legitimacy, even though she had valid voter credentials!” the Awami League quoted one of the students as saying.

The party called it “ballot-stuffing tyranny” to snatch away the voices of students and empower extremist groups with foreign backing.

These student leaders earlier collaborated with Yunus and several political outfits to overthrow the democratically elected Awami League government led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

IANS