The polls will now be held on Feb 1 instead of Jan 30, the commission said after an emergency meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda at its headquarters in the capital on Saturday.
Election commissioners along with the returning officers for Dhaka North and South city corporations attended the emergency meeting.
Just before Huda announced the new polling day, Education Minister Dipu Moni said the government decided to defer the SSC and equivalent exams from Feb 1 to Feb 3. A new test schedule will be announced on Sunday, she said.
Huda said he had shared the “complex issue” with Dipu Moni and asked her whether it would be possible to defer the exams citing that the polling day hurt religious sentiments.
“We held the meeting after she agreed to hold back the tests to a later time,” he said.
The CEC added he had nothing to say to the protesters as their demand has been met.
After the EC on Dec 22 last year announced the schedule fixing Jan 30 as the voting day, the announcement was met with opposition from the Puja Udjapon Parishad and the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council as the voting day overlapped with the Puja, slated for Jan 29 and 30 in the Bangladesh calendar.
The Dhaka University Central Students’ Union or DUCSU also urged the EC to shift the vote but the calls had gone unheeded.
Lawyer Ashok Kumar Ghosh later moved the High Court seeking a stay on the elections but the court turned down the writ petition.
Meanwhile, a group of Dhaka University students went on hunger strike in protest against the EC’s “communal” decision to hold the vote during the Puja while a platform of Hindus in Bangladesh threatened that they will boycott the elections if it is held on the day of the Puja.
Both the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP also said they had no objection to changing the date.
A number of teachers, including Vice-Chancellor Md Akhtaruzzaman, and leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League, DUCSU and Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council also came to the site to express solidarity with the protesters as many of the demonstrators fell sick due to starvation.
VC Akhtaruzzaman rushed to the Raju Memorial Sculpture, where the students staged the hunger strike, after the EC’s announcement.
The protesters rejoiced as he offered them fruit juice to break their fast.
One of the demonstrators, Susmita Dey, said she felt “proud to have the demand met through a nonviolent movement”.
Jagannath Hall, which houses Hindu students, organises Saraswati Puja along with other higher educational institutions across the country.
It is under the Dhaka South City Corporation. Several institutions under Dhaka South and North city corporations organise Saraswati Puja and are also used as polling stations.
The EC had earlier held meetings, but its Secretary Md Alamgir had maintained there had been no scope of changing the date.
He had said Jan 30 is “perfect” for the vote arguing that the Puja falls on Jan 29 in line with the government calendar while the SSC exams were scheduled to start on Feb 1.
Alamgir had also said there should be no problem in holding the vote and the Puja on the same day as both are “sacred tasks”.
Source : BD News 24
