Polling for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) election was conducted peacefully on Wednesday at 52 centres in various colleges. The voter turnout was around 43.8% till afternoon voting, an official said.
Last year, the turnout was 42.8%. The highest turnout in the last seven years was in 2014 when 44.4% of students cast their vote.
Twenty-three candidates were in the fray in this year’s elections. The voting was conducted in two sessions: from 8.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. for day classes, and from 3.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. for evening classes.
Tight security
The police barricaded North Campus and heavy security was deployed outside off-campus colleges to ensure that only students with ID cards and faculty of Delhi University (DU) were allowed entry to the colleges.
The security was put in place after reports of violence on the last day of campaigning at Zakir Hussain College (Evening).
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) posted volunteers outside colleges to welcome students as they went in to vote and handed them pamphlets with ballot numbers of their candidates.
Outside a few North Campus colleges, volunteers were seen distributing water, juice and chocolates wrapped in pamphlets carrying ballot numbers.
The distribution of ballot numbers outside colleges did not go down well with students.
Shivam Garg, a first-year student, said: “It is my first election here and I am shocked at how much money student organisations are wasting on pamphlets. Rather than distributing them, they seem to have printed them to just throw in the air and litter the area.”
Another first-time voter Divij Dutta said that that he was going to vote NOTA as none of the candidates appealed to him and “all of them are making similar promises”. “Several seniors in my college reached out to me to vote either for the NSUI or the ABVP. I went through their manifesto and they were almost the same when it comes to student issues,” said Mr. Dutta.
‘Women’s colleges left out’
Pinjra Tod, an autonomous collective of women in DU fighting against regressive policies and regulation of women students on poll day, pointed out that many colleges still do not participate in DUSU elections, primarily women’s colleges.
“Out of DU’s 17 women’s colleges, only about five participate in the DUSU elections,” it stated.
“This exclusion is glorified by the administration and often even agreed to by many students given the hostile nature of the dominant representation of the DUSU politics. What this does is further isolate students and makes the DUSU unaccountable towards them,” the collective stated.
The counting of votes will take place on September 13 at 8.30 a.m. in the community hall, Police Lines, Kingsway Camp.
Last year, the NSUI won the posts of DUSU president and vice-president, while the ABVP got the secretary and joint secretary posts.
