Students in Bangladesh have begun voting to elect leaders of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), often called the country’s second parliament for its role in shaping national politics.
The polls on Tuesday, the first since a student-led uprising last year that forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country, are being closely watched as a test of Bangladesh’s democratic transition.
“Students are seeing this election as a step towards the country’s democratic transition and a major move toward the national election,” Arman Hossen, a third-year student of mass communication and journalism, said.
He described long queues of students eager to cast their ballots.
According to Dhaka University authorities, 39,874 students are eligible to vote — 18,959 women and 20,915 men.
Voting is taking place at 810 booths across eight centres, with 471 candidates contesting 28 posts.
“The national election train will follow,” said renowned filmmaker and cultural affairs adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.
Student organisations linked to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami, and the newly formed youth-led National Citizen Party (NCP) are among those competing.
Polling began in the morning and will continue for eight hours until the evening.
The last DUCSU vote was held in 2019 under Hasina, who fled to India during the 2024 uprising.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as head of an interim administration, suspended the Awami League’s activities, and banned its student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League, under anti-terror laws.
The Yunus government has pledged to hold general elections in February.
