Abdul Kader, vice-president candidate from the Discrimination Resistance Students’ Council, has alleged that the Dhaka University administration acted in a biased manner during the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election.
He claimed that both the Election Commission and the university administration were engaged in “power-sharing deals.”
Speaking at a press conference at TSC around 9 p.m. on Tuesday (September 9), Kader accused Islami Chhatra Shibir-backed VP candidate Sadiq Kayem of manipulating the voting process inside polling centers, while BNP-backed Chhatra Dal carried out similar “mechanisms” from outside.
“This election has exposed an incompetent and amateur Election Commission,” he said. “We saw one political group engineering things from outside, and another student organization doing the same inside. We saw Sadiq Kayem inside manipulating, and we saw Chhatra Dal operating from outside. No one followed any specific guidelines.”
Kader alleged that despite his repeated attempts to contact the chief returning officer and other officials, they failed to respond to his complaints. “At times they did respond, but in a superficial manner,” he noted.
He further claimed that at the TSC polling station, ballots had been pre-marked in favor of Sadiq Kayem and SM Farhad. “When I phoned returning officer Golam Rabbani about this, he told me the problem had been solved. On asking how, he said the ballot paper had simply been replaced. That was their solution.”
Criticizing the role of the Election Commission and the university administration, Kader said, “They have been engaged in dividing up power among themselves. They are factionalized, and each group is serving its own interests. Some are pro-Jamaat, some pro-BNP. The interests of students have been completely ignored.”
