New Delhi : Thousands of students on Friday voted to elect the new office- bearers of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU).
There are a total of 1,23,421 voters in Delhi University. Voting for DUSU was scheduled in two phases at 50 polling centres at 42 colleges and eight departments of the varsity.
The agents of different student outfits, backed by various political parties, tried their level best to woo the students and persuade them to vote for their respective candidates.
A total of 17 candidates are in the fray for the four posts, including president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary, of DUSU. While seven of them are in the race for the post of DUSU president, four are fighting for the vice-president’s seat.
“The first phase began at 8.30 a.m. and went off peacefully. The polling is underway for the second phase that started at 3 p.m.,” Chief Election Officer for DUSU polls D.S. Rawat told IANS.
“It was an awesome experience to vote for the first time. I am aged 17 and not eligible to elect my government. But I felt responsible about getting a chance to elect my leaders at the university level,” a Chemistry Honours first year student from Hindu College, who didn’t want to be named, told IANS.
A student from the law department said because of late admissions, many students were clueless about the candidates.
“Admissions happened very late due to protests this year. So, I have no clue about who all are contesting. I didn’t go to cast my vote,” said a LLB second year student Suhani Bhatia.
Rawat said the exact voting percentage of the first phase was being compiled.
“We cannot tell the exact polling percentage since we haven’t received the complete data,” he said.
“We had deployed our observers to keep a tab on the elections. Videography of the DUSU polls is being done and eight closed-circuit television have also been set up in the election office,” Rawat said.