DU students submit memorandum demanding DUCSU election roadmap

A group of Dhaka University (DU) students on Sunday submitted a memorandum to Pro-Vice Chancellor (Administration) Prof Dr Sayma Haque Bidisha urging the authorities to promptly announce a roadmap for holding the long-stalled Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election.

They handed over the memorandum to Prof Sayma at her office around 10:30am in the presence of the university’s Proctor Prof Dr Md Saifuddin Ahmed, UNB reports. 

Prof Sayma said the work of the committees formed regarding DUCSU will be completed within the next week, after which the committees will be dissolved.

“We will try to gather student feedback on the reports by April 15,” she said.

“In the syndicate meeting at the end of April, we hope the reports will be approved. Once the legal process is completed, the election commission will be formed by mid-May,” she added.

Following the memorandum submission, the students held a press conference, expressing frustration over the delay in holding student union elections.

Mosaddeq Ali, a student of the Bangla department, said, “One of our nine demands was to ensure regular student union elections on all campuses. But even after eight months, this has not materialised.”

He called upon the university authorities to announce a detailed roadmap, saying, “By roadmap, we don’t mean just the election date, but the timeline for completing all the processes. Political instability may arise in June, making the situation complicated. So we urge the administration to act now, or else we will be compelled to go for tougher movements or hunger strikes.”

Joyen Uddin Sarkar Tonmoy of the Economics department said, “The longer the DUCSU election is delayed, the greater the chances of conspiracies.”

The students demanded that the university administration ensure a fair and timely process to restore the student union after years of dormancy.