Report in The Kathmandu Post, March 26,2023
As more results of the Free Students Union election come from Tribhuvan University constituent and affiliated campuses across the country, the wings of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have emerged as the two largest student organisations.
The rival groups have differing claims of the March 9 vote’s outcome as the university administration is yet to compile all the results and make them public. Polls have yet to be held on a few campuses.
The All Nepal National Free Students Union, close to the UML, said it had won the union leadership in 19 constituent campuses as of Wednesday evening, while the Nepal Student Union, close to the Congress, stands second, with 18 wins. The All Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary), close to the CPN (Maoist Centre), has secured four wins in the Free Student Union elections. The Samajbadi Bidyarthi Union, close to the Janata Samajbadi Party, won two, while the Bidyarthi Janamat Sangh, close to the Janamat Party, secured one win.
A total of 44 constituent campuses have held elections so far. Two of the constituent colleges unanimously elected the FSU leadership.
The university is yet to collect the data from the affiliated campuses across the country.
However, the results from the proportional representation category are not out yet. The student organisations ANNFSU and NSU claim to have won the highest number of FSU representatives so far. Tribhuvan University administration officials, however, said they are yet to collect formal data from all the campuses.
The president, secretary, treasurer and 50 percent members are elected directly, while the vice-president, joint secretary and the other 50 percent members are elected through proportional representation.
“As per the votes received in the FSU elections under the proportional representation category, the student organisations will have to nominate the candidates from among their proportional representation list within seven days,” said Pashupati Adhikari, chief at the Directorate of Student Welfare and Sports at the Tribhuvan University. “They should send the names from within the PR list they have already submitted to complete the election process which would give a full shape to the Free Student Union.”
If they don’t send the names within seven days, the election committee will proceed with the names based on the serial number given in the list of proportional candidates already submitted to the election committee, said Adhikari. “We will get the formal data of the election results only after the completion of this process.”
The Free Students Union elections in the constituent and affiliated colleges of the Tribhuvan University across the country concluded on March 19. The Tribhuvan University has 62 constituent and 1,040 affiliated colleges (both community and private).
Tribhuvan University has already called for the data but it would take time to collect and calculate all of it, said Adhikari.
Elections in many of the campuses in various parts of the country were postponed due to disputes between rival unions. Some of those campuses have held elections while in some others, the elections are pending.
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/03/26/student-wings-of-major-parties-retain-their-dominance-in-university-elections
