Bangladesh: BNP Student Wing Claims Discrimination in Student Union Elections
Leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) staged a sit-in outside the Bangladesh Election Commission headquarters in Dhaka's Agargaon on Sunday, accusing the poll body of bias in postal ballot and student union election verdicts, local media reported.
Dhaka: Leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) staged a sit-in outside the Bangladesh Election Commission headquarters in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Sunday, accusing the poll body of bias in postal ballot and student union election verdicts, local media reported. The JCD is a Bangladeshi student organisation affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The JCD leaders and activists began the protest outside the EC headquarters on Sunday at 10 a.m., Bangladesh’s leading daily The Daily Star reported. While addressing the protesters, JCD President Rakibul Islam said, “We have seen that a specific political group exerted influence to carry out such activities related to ballot papers, and those sitting inside the Election Commission could not have been unaware of it. These incidents took place with their direct instigation and support.”
Rakibul alleged that similar discrimination was taking place in student union polls, including Shahjalal University of Science and Technology’s (SUST) upcoming central student union and hall elections and recent elections at Jagannath University. “In all these cases, we are being deliberately undermined, and the Election Commission has played a role in it,” he said, adding that the situation showcases the influence of the student wing of a particular political party.
JCD leaders said that they were holding a protest over three demands — an end to what they termed EC’s biased and questionable decisions related to postal ballots, avoidance of “rash decisions” taken under political pressure and withdrawal of what they described as an unprecedented and controversial order related to the SUST student union polls. On January 15, the Election Commission permitted SUST to hold its student and hall union elections scheduled for January 20.
On January 9, the BNP raised serious concerns over the law and order situation in the country ahead of the February elections, criticising the performance of law enforcement agencies under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, local media reported.
“The rate at which political leaders are being killed, particularly some leaders of our party, is truly worrying,” Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as saying while addressing reporters at his residence in Thakurgaon district. “We have strongly condemned these murders, but no action has been taken by the government. We hope the authorities will act responsibly and prevent such incidents during the elections,” he added.
