Rucsu polls: Election date to be rescheduled, nominations submission deadline extended by 5 days

The Rajshahi University Central Students' Union (Rucsu), hall unions, and senate student representative elections are set to be rescheduled, as the nomination paper collection deadline has been extended.

Chief Election Commissioner of Rucsu polls Prof F Nazrul Islam announced the decision today (26 August).

At a press briefing around 4:30pm, Nazrul Islam said the deadline for collecting nomination papers has been extended by 5 days, from 26 August to 31 August. 

As of today, students have collected 86 nomination papers for the central union, 106 for the hall unions, and 10 for student representative posts.

Prof Nazrul further stated that, following students' justified demands, the commission held an emergency meeting this noon and took several key decisions. 

The decisions include deferring the voting date, relocating polling centres from residential halls to academic buildings, preparing a voter list with photographs, and extending the deadline for dope tests, he said.

He added that the meeting was still ongoing, and a fully revised election schedule would be announced later at night. 

"The polling date will be rescheduled to a reasonable time," he said.

On 28 July, the university administration announced the election schedule for Rucsu after 35 years, setting 15 September as the polling date. Even before this latest change, the deadlines for nomination collection and submission had already been extended once.

Meanwhile, the decision to defer the election date has drawn widespread anger and frustration among a section of students.