UNIVERSITY of Dhaka students demanding elections to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union and hall unions in three to six months is a legitimate demand. The demand came once again through a survey that the advisory committee formed by the university administration conducted in March 23–April 6. About 75 per cent of the respondents say that the authorities should hold the elections in three months while some respondents have proposed that the elections could be held in six months to ensure the most peaceful and widely accepted outcome. The DUCSU elections, last held in 2019 after a gap of 29 years since 1990, is, as most students say, necessary as it introduces democratic practices in the running of the universities and helps students to commit to student welfare. This is, therefore, heartening that the university authorities have initiated the talks for holding the DUCSU elections, especially when public universities have for long abandoned students’ elections. Earlier, two other universities, the University of Rajshahi and Jahangirnagar University, have worked out a road map to the elections to the students’ union.
The University of Rajshahi in a road map made public on February 27 specified that the elections could take place towards the end of June. Jahangirnagar University authorities, meanwhile in the first week of February, made public a road map to the elections to the Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union where they expect to hold the elections by May. Elections to the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union were last held in 1989 and to the Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union in 1992. Other public universities that have students’ nions, have not yet been heard of taking initiatives to hold elections. For an example, the University of Chittagong, the Bangladesh Agricultural University, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology have students’ unions but have not yet worked out any road map. The other public universities are yet to establish students’ unions. All this is worrying because the students’ unions should facilitate democratic practices in universities and help to foster leadership, deal with issues of education and give general students platforms to voice their concern and rights. It is, therefore, important for the other public universities to immediately come up with road maps for the students’ union elections.
All the universities that have students’ unions should, therefore, hold the elections to the unions early and regularly. The other public universities should also establish students’ unions, both central and hall, to politically orient students for democratic furtherance.
