Midnight Post by Abid: “I Reject This Orchestrated Farce”

In the wake of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election results, Vice-President (VP) candidate Md Abidul Islam Khan, backed by the student wing of the BNP, posted a sharp reaction on Facebook at midnight.

At 2:20 am on Tuesday night, when the post went live, results from five of DUCSU’s halls had already been announced. By that stage, the United Students’ Alliance VP candidate Md Abu Sadiq (popularly known as Sadiq Kayem) had secured 7,076 votes, while Abidul Islam Khan managed 1,789 votes.

In his post, Abidul wrote: “I had predicted this orchestrated manipulation since the afternoon. Insert numbers however you wish. I reject this carefully staged farce.”

Earlier, from around 1:45 am, results from the halls had begun to be declared separately.

After a six-year hiatus, the mini-parliament of Dhaka University—the Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) and the Hall Unions—held elections on Tuesday, 9 September. Voting took place in 810 booths across eight centres of the university.

This year’s election drew 471 candidates competing for 28 posts in DUCSU. Among them were 62 female candidates.

Candidate Breakdown

A total of 39,775 students were eligible to vote in the election. Among them:

• Male voters: 20,873
• Female voters: 18,902

More than 80% of registered students cast their votes, according to university sources.