After Ducsu triumph, Shibir sweeps Jucsu winning GS, most other central posts
Swatantra Shikkharthi panel’s Zitu elected VP, Shibir’s Mazhar GS; Chhatra Dal fails to win any, Chhatra Sangsad secures 2
Highlights
- Shibir's panel secured 20 out of 25 posts in the Jucsu polls
- Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal panel failed to secure any position
- Independent candidates won two posts, while BGCS candidates took two
- Zitu's panel failed to win any other post despite his VP victory
- Manual counting dragged for 40 hours, delaying final results amid boycotts and controversy
The Islami Chhatra Shibir-backed panel won a sweeping victory in the Jahangirnagar University Central Students' Union (Jucsu) elections, securing 20 of the 25 central posts, just after a landslide victory at Dhaka University.
The vice president post, however, has gone to Swatantra Shikkharthi Sammilan candidate Abdur Rashid Zitu. Shibir's Md Mazharul Islam has been elected general secretary and his fellow panellists bagged both AGS – male and female – positions.
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Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal's panel, which boycotted the polls at the last stage of the polling on 11 September over allegations of irregularities, has not won a single post, while Bangladesh Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad (BGCS) has bagged two.
The results, announced by Chief Election Commissioner Prof Md Moniruzzaman at 7:15pm today (13 September) at the university's Senate building, came after 40 nerve-wracking hours of vote counting.
Shibir's landslide in Jucsu came in the same manner the organisation booked most positions in the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu) polls on 9 September.
Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, was in effect banned in both universities for about three decades, as political and socio-cultural organisations of the two universities – JU and DU – reached a consensus not to allow activities of the student body and religion-based politics on the campus respectively in 1989 and 1990.
Although Shibir held strong positions in other public universities such as Rajshahi and Chittagong up until the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina literally cleared the university campuses of strong opposition, the robust show of the the organisation in the Dhaka University campus through the Ducsu election served a pure shock to many.
And then this Jucsu win has been even more surprising.
Jahangirnagar University is historically seen as one of the last bastions of "progressive" students and hailed as the cultural capital of Bangladesh, with the glorious history of anti-rapist and aniti-fanatics movements.
For the first time in around 35 years, Shibir announced its JU committee in October last year.
After the killing of History department student Habibur Rahman Kabir allegedly by Shibir activists in 1989, all socio-cultural-political organisations at the university reached a consensus not to allow activities of the student body and religion-based politics on the campus.
These two elections at the country's top public universities come about a year after the July uprising which led to the fall of the Hasina regime, ultimately changing the political landscape on the campuses.
One element of surprise is the unimpressive performance of Bangladesh Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad, leaders of which were the prominent faces of the uprising.
Also in the dynamics is the absence of Chhatra League, which single handedly dominated all the public university campuses over the last one and half decade through violence. But Chhatra Dal, its archrival and a major student organisation in the country, failed to capitalise on the vacuum.
Of course, despite the overall positive environment and primary enthusiasm surrounding the polls, five panels boycotted it as the voting progressed on Thursday. Three teachers involved in polling duties and two election commissioners resigned from their election responsibilities.
Four of the panels called for a reelection. The vote-counting took 40 hours, which also created frustrations among the campus community. A teacher died of cardiac arrest while carrying out her duty as a polling officer sparking shock and sorrow on campus.
The Jucsu Election Commission, of course, stated that the elections were free and fair except for a few negligible management issues.
Controversies started even before the polls. Amartya Roy, VP candidate from the Shompritir Oikya panel, will not be able to run after a High Court order reinstating his candidacy was stayed by the Chamber Court.
Jucsu polls: Manual counting, absence of polling agents, CCTV monitoring delay results
Shompritir Oikya had strongly protested the cancellation of his candidacy, describing the decision as part of a "broader pattern of irregularities and bias by the administration and election commission."
At a press conference held on the campus before the polls, the panel alleged that the administration was deliberately attempting to exclude Amartya from the race despite a High Court ruling that had initially upheld his candidacy.
Panel representatives said the HC order was stayed following an appeal from the university authorities, a move they claim was based on "false statements" presented by the university's legal representatives.
Since the university's establishment, 10 Jucsu elections have been held including this year's. The first election was held in 1972 while the ninth was in 1992.
In the 1992 polls, Masud Hasan Talukder and Shamsul Tabriz from a panel backed by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP's student wing, were elected vice-president and general secretary respectively.
The winners
None of the other 20 candidates from VP-elect Abdur Rashid Zitu's panel secured victory. Zitu bagged 3,334 votes, defeating his nearest rival, Shibir's Arif Ullah secured 2,392 votes.
After his victory in the election, Abdur Rashid Zitu said, "I dedicate my victory to the late Assistant Professor of the Fine Arts Department, Jannatul Ferdous. Even before being elected, I stood by the students despite many forms of intimidation. After being elected, I will continue to work for the welfare of the students in the same way, ignoring all kinds of threats."
For the post of GS, Shibir's Mazharul Islam received 3,930 votes. He is the office and publication secretary of the university unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir. His closest rival, Abu Touhid Md Siam, who contested from the Shikkharthi Oikya Forum backed by the Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad, secured 1,238 votes.
Shibir panel's Ferdous Al Hasan was elected as AGS (male) with 2,358 votes. His closest rival, Shikkharthi Oikya Forum's candidate Zia Uddin Ayan, secured 2,014 votes.
For the post of AGS (female), Shibir-backed panel's Ayesha Siddika Meghla was elected with 3,402 votes, while her closest rival, Malihah Namlah from the Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad-backed panel, received 1,836 votes.
Other winners from the Shibir-backed panel include: Abu Ubaida Usama (Education & Research Secretary), Safayet Mir (Environment & Nature Conservation Secretary), Zahidul Islam (Literature & Publications Secretary), Mohibullah Sheikh Jisan (Cultural Secretary), Md Rayhan Uddin (Assistant Cultural Secretary), Md Ruhul Islam (Drama Secretary), Mahmudul Hasan Kiron (Sports Secretary), Mahadi Hasan (Assistant Sports Secretary–Male), Farhana Akter Lubna (Assistant Sports Secretary–Female), Rashedul Imon Likhan (IT & Library Secretary), Hafez Ariful Islam (Social Welfare & Human Development Secretary), Ahsab Labib (Social Welfare & Human Development Secretary), Touhid Hasan (Assistant Social Welfare & Human Development–Male), Nigar Sultana (Assistant Social Welfare & Human Development–Female), Husni Mobarak (Health & Food Security Secretary), and Md Tanvir Rahman (Transport & Communications Secretary).
Executive member positions for women went to Fabliha Jahan, Nabila Binte Harun and Nusrat Jahan; for men Abu Talha, Md Tariqul Islam, and Mohammad Ali Chishti.
Altogether, Jucsu has 25 posts. Of the 18 secretary positions, Shibir's panel Combined Students' Alliance secured 16, and among the 6 executive member seats, they won 5.
