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Published : 13 Sep 2025, 01:06 PM
More than 43 hours after voting ended in the Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union (JUCSU) election, the wait for results continues, with the Election Commission now saying they expect to announce the outcome by Saturday evening.
Chief Election Commissioner Prof Md Moniruzzaman told reporters at midday that 85 percent of the ballots had been counted. “We hope to announce the results by 7pm,” he said.
Earlier, Election Commissioner Prof Lutful Elahi had said that results might be ready by 1:30pm or 2pm, as 15 out of the 21 hall centres had already been completed and another three were close to finishing.
But the delays have persisted.
On Friday evening, the chief election commissioner had told reporters at the university’s Senate building that results would be declared by the end of the night.
But a visit to the Senate building on Saturday morning showed that even after a night of non-stop counting, the process was still ongoing.
Voting began across 21 halls of the 12,000-strong campus at 9am on Thursday. Polls in most halls closed by 5pm, but long queues meant voting continued until 7:30pm in two or three.
Counting began under tight security at the Senate building after 10pm that night. Officials said turnout was around 68 percent.
The main disruption came when the authorities abruptly decided to switch from machine-based to manual vote counting after allegations surfaced that ballot papers and OMR machines had been supplied by a company linked to Jamaat-e-Islami. This decision plunged the process into chaos.
A returning officer had said on Friday that about 8,000 students had voted, each casting three ballots for the central union. This meant that nearly 24,000 ballots needed to be counted.
Counting for the hall unions finished on Friday evening. JUCSU counting began at 8pm that night, but 16 hours later, the commission was still unable to complete the tally of those 24,000 ballots.
Officials now say they are confident of publishing the results later on Saturday, though repeated assurances over the past two days have failed to materialise.
