Aug 15, 2016- Despite publishing the voters’ list and distributing voter cards, the Nepal Students’ Union elections scheduled for Tuesday looks uncertain after a section of student leaders expressed their dissatisfaction on the names of representatives and threatened to boycott the conclave.
With this, the Nepali Congress, which had earlier stated that they would only be able to send their names of new ministers to the Cabinet, is also unlikely to pick their candidates anytime soon. “I am not quite informed about the latest developments within the party regarding Cabinet expansion. But, since we are all busy holding the student union elections, we have not had much time to dwell on other things,” NC leader Bal Krishna Khand told the Post.
In a statement released on Sunday, student leaders close to NC leader Ram Chandra Poudel have alleged the party committee formed to solve the dispute of “incorporating people who are not students in the list of representatives in the name of forging consensus”. However, NSU President Ranjit Karna, considered close to Poudel, was among the signatories of the deal forged on Saturday with disgruntled students.
Waiting in line for their voter cards at the party headquarters in Sanepa on Sunday afternoon, a majority of the NSU student leaders wore a dejected look as the union’s 11th General Convention which began last Sunday has failed to move ahead the voting process to elect their new leadership still undecided.
“The statement from a section of the student leaders and the violence that broke out at the party headquarters has once again put the whole election process in uncertainty,” said an NSU office bearer, requesting anonymity.
Amidst the voter card distribution process, a section of the student representatives resorted to violence denouncing the “irregularities in the list of representatives.” Police baton-charged to disperse the disgruntled crowd as the whole area surrounding the party headquarters in Sanepa remained tense throughout the day.
“The whole dispute is very unfortunate at a time when the leadership was determined to hold the union’s polls at any cost,” said Shuba Ram Basnet, a president aspirant, who was at Sanepa to collect his voter card. The party’s election committee has, however, asked office bearer aspirants to file their nominations at the party headquarters between 8-11am on Monday. It had earlier set the nomination time frame for Sunday afternoon.
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