Kathmandu, January 28:

Student leaders today stressed the need to avoid confrontations during the upcoming Free Students Union (FSU) election.

“The existence of the FSU will be in jeopardy if we resort to confrontations during this crucial phase,” said Gokul Gharti, general secretary of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), at a press meet organised by the FSU of the Patan Multiple College here today. The press meet was organised to inform about an inter-college football competition that will be organised to create a friendly environment for the FSU and Constituent Assembly (CA) polls.

Gharti claimed that the FSU election was the first step towards solving the nation’s problems. That is why, the students should make sure that the election is peaceful. He said the regulation of the FSU should be changed. Most of the student unions have demanded the change in the FSU regulation and the Tribhuvan University has also felt this need.

General secretary of the All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary Himal Sharma said the FSU election process should be scientific.

“Since past elections were not peaceful, it is hard to imagine election without confrontation,” he said, claiming that the unions are trying to make it a mess, though they have been advocating friendly election.

He revealed that the eight student unions have made an informal agreement for a consensus against the FSU polls, saying it could disturb the upcoming CA polls. “But they blamed us later for opposing the election,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Sanskrit University (NSU) has decided to conduct the Free Students’ Union election on the date announced by the Tribhuvan University.

“We have decided to hold the FSU election on February 28 following the trend in the previous years,” Bidur Poudel, vice-chancellor of the NSU, said today.