BRUR Correspondent: Students of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR) staged a sit-in in front of the administrative building demanding the announcement of a roadmap for the central students’ union (BRUCSU) election.
The programme began around 11 a.m. on Tuesday (18 November) in front of the administrative building. Later, the students marched through the main roads of the campus and took position in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office. They demanded that the election schedule be announced within the day and that the election be held in the first week of December.
Bayjid Shikdar, a student of the 13th batch of the Management Information Systems department, said, “Our sit-in started at 12 p.m. It is possible to announce the roadmap today. We will continue our protest until the announcement is made.”
Suman, a student of the Bangla department, said, “Although 22 days have passed since the publication of the gazette, the administration has still not announced the roadmap. They assured us it would be published right after the gazette was issued, but no effective steps have been taken yet. That is why we were forced to stage this sit-in.”
During the protest, Chief Election Commissioner Professor Dr. Md. Shahjahan told the students, “We have already published the draft code of conduct. A meeting with the election commissioners is underway today. The election date will be announced at an appropriate time. We hope to announce the schedule within today.”
It is worth mentioning that on 28 October, the Ministry of Education approved the student council election law for BRUR through a notification signed by Senior Assistant Secretary Naima Khandaker, with President and University Chancellor Md. Sahabuddin giving final approval.
Following this, on 4 November, a six-member election commission was formed with Professor Md. Ferdous Rahman as chief. However, he resigned citing personal reasons, causing the election process to stall. Later, on 11 November, Professor Dr. Md. Shahjahan of the Statistics department was appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner.
