Kathmandu, April 8

Nepal Student Union aligned to the Nepali Congress today gave a three-day ultimatum to the Tribhuvan University to announce the date for Free Student Union polls, that have not been held for the last seven years.

NSU members led by Manoj Baidhya, president, Kathmandu District Committee, today handed over a memorandum to Prof Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice-chancellor of TU, with a four-point demand. The memorandum was signed by presidents of NSU units of 51 different colleges.

NSU has demanded that the government announce the FSU polls within three days. It has also demanded that the TU adopt direct election system and scrap the provision of age bar for FSU poll contenders.

NSU has warned of protests if the TU fails to announce the poll date within three days.

UP Lamichhane, spokesperson, NSU, today said they would not accept the provision of age bar for contenders in the FSU polls and proportionate election system.

As per the TU regulation, age bar for contenders would not have applied had the polls been held before mid-April 2015. But as student unions have already missed this deadline, contenders above 28 years would not be eligible to contest in the FSU polls.

Prof Khaniya said TU wants to conduct the FSU polls at the earliest. He, however, said that the student unions need to narrow down their differences to create an environment for polls.

“Announcement of the date for polls is not a big issue,” he said, adding, “TU has already formed a committee under the coordination of Rector Sudha Tripathy to announce the date for polls.”

He further said that since they failed to conduct FSU polls before mid-April, 2015, the varsity needed to redefine provisions of the TU regulations, which is only possible through a senate meeting.

“The senate meeting scheduled for April 21 will take a decision on age bar for poll contenders and the type of election system,” he added.