Kathmandu, April 15

Campus chief, poll officials, students’ reps locked.

Following a dispute over formulating the code of conduct for counting of votes, students of Thamel-based Saraswati Campus today locked all the 11 members of the election committee, booth agents, campus chief and student unions’ representatives. They were not released till late in the night.

The counting of votes for the Free Student Union of the college has not begun because of the dispute. The campus held its FSU polls on April 12, as election could not be held on March 19 because of disputes between the student unions.

“We have been locked inside a room like prisoners because of the dispute between the students over counting of votes,” chief of the election committee Krishna Poudel told this daily over phone, adding, “We have neither eaten anything nor are we allowed to go outside.” Poudel alleged that security personnel were involved in locking them. He also regretted that peace could not be brokered between the student unions despite repeated attempts. However, the rival student unions are divided over the modality of vote count. A joint panel of Nepal Students’ Union and All Nepal National Free Students Union and the panel of All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary are the main competitors in the election.

“There were 100 to 150 forged votes in a booth having the genuine signature of chief of the election committee,” alleged Uttam Pathak, president of the campus unit of the NSU and the vice-presidential candidate, adding, “We won’t let counting of votes by mixing all votes from all ballot boxes.”

However, Poudel claimed that there was no proof of forgery. “How can one accuse of forgery without opening the ballot box?” he wondered. He also criticised the TU administration of doing nothing to resolve the dispute.

Bina Magar, president of ANNISU-R’s campus unit, denied forgery in votes and said the counting had not begun because of the lack of code of conduct. “Some fringe student unions were insisting on counting all votes at once. We only supported their demands. This is a scientific way of counting votes,” she claimed. She also criticised other student unions of starting unnecessary dispute.

Campus chief Rajyalaxmi Khadka said the dispute was still not resolved and the the vote counting had been postponed.