After 28 years, the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) is set to hold elections to the central students’ union and hall parliaments on December 17, while the students have rejected the schedule.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AM Sarwaruddin Chowdhury announced the date at a press conference on campus around 9pm on Friday, saying: “The Election Commission will conduct the polls in a free and fair environment. We will not interfere in its work.”
Students are demanding that voting be held by December 10 and have taken position in front of the registrar’s building, where the VC, registrar and other officials have remained inside.
On Thursday evening, soon after the postponement of the previously expected announcement, agitating students began protesting in front of the Registrar’s Building. Later, around 10pm, they locked the administrative building and continued a sit-in near the VC’s residence.
At 11pm, Treasurer Prof Dr Ismail Hossain and Proctor Prof Mokhlesur Rahman attempted to reassure the students, but they refused to lift the blockade. Around 1am, the VC and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Md Sajedul Karim also met the protesters.
They assured students that the elections would be completed by December 10, but the demonstrators maintained their blockade.
This marks the first major step toward holding the long-awaited polls in nearly three decades. The Sust administration has already launched the Election Commission’s website and published the constitution for conducting the elections.
