OMR machines begin counting votes for DUCSU election

The counting of votes in the Dhaka University Central Student’s Union election and the hall council election has begun.

Voting has ended at 16 halls, but is continuing at Ruqayyah Hall and Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall.  

The ballots will be counted through optical mark recognition machine counters or OMR machine at all polling counters, said Prof Abdul Basir, returning officer in the election. The results for hall councils will be announced in the halls, while the DUCSU election result will be announced after summing up the results from all centres, he said.

Most panels, including the Chhatra Dal, leftist students and quota reformers, have boycotted the election over complaints of irregularities and rigging before voting ended. 

The voting was scheduled to begin at 8:00 am on Monday at all 18 residential halls of Dhaka University. But polls were delayed at Ruqayyah Hall and the Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall as the students protested irregularities.

And so, despite polls closing at 16 centres at 2:00 pm, it continued in those two halls.

"There are 12 machines to count the ballots and they started at 3:15 pm. It will take about an hour to count the ballots for all posts. We'll complete the counting in 12 halls and then move the machines to the others to count the ballots," said Prof Abdul Basir.

Voting at the Kuwait Maitree Hall will end at 5:10 pm. It will take three more hours more at Ruqayyah Hall to complete the voting as it started at 3:10 pm, said the returning officer.

"The result for the central student's union will be announced once the counting is done at all centres," he said.