Student Union election postponed in Nawalpur

BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS,Nawalpur/Tansen, Mar. 14: The election of the Free Student Union (FSU) scheduled for March 18 in all campuses of the district has been postponed. The Nepal Public Campus Association of Nawalparasi stated that the election could not be held due to the difficult circumstances in the district.

The association held a press conference at Kumarwarti Multiple Campus on Wednesday and informed that legal obstacles arose as the election schedule no. 6 was fully affected as per the FSU election guidelines no. 12. As a result, the entire programme has been postponed.

Meanwhile, Nepal Student Union (NSU) affiliated to the Nepali Congress and All Nepal National Independent Student Union (ANNIS) Revolutionary affiliated to the CPN (Maoist Centre) protested the decision during the press meet. They blamed All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) affiliated to the CPN-UML and Public Campus Union for the postponement of the election.  The ANNFSU has padlocked the campuses across the district. 

Hari Subedi, the district president of NSU, alleged that ANNFSU, seeing their inability to win elections in the district, turned the Public Campus Union unit into a tool for their benefit. He warned that they would break the padlocks at all campuses and escalate their protest if necessary.

On the other hand, ANNFSU claimed that the campus administration was responsible for the failure to hold the election. According to ANNFSU's district president, Saugat Bhusal, the campus administration failed to discuss the formulation of a code of conduct after the registration of student organisations, engaged in widespread irregularities in student admissions to influence the election process and was attempting to either prevent the election or manipulate it in their favour.

Meanwhile, in Palpa, the leadership of the Free Student Union has been selected unopposed in two campuses. The leadership was chosen unopposed at Mandavya Multiple Campus in Damkada and Uddhabuddha College in Purukhola in Tansen Municipality-9 of Palpa district.

Both Saugat Koirala and Krishna Jhyapurluk from ANNFSU were elected as the president of Mandavya Multiple Campus and Uddhabuddha College respectively. 

In the meantime, in Purba Khola, ANNFSU's single panel was elected unopposed.