(Joypurhat) District Representative:
Upazila Election Officer Ayesha Khatun celebrated National Voters' Day in a grand manner at Khet Lal in Joypurhat. The leaders of the student community expressed their anger over the invitation and the provision of used shirts to the student coordinators.
With the theme 'We will vote for your Bangladesh together', a rally and discussion meeting was held on March 2 (Sunday) at 10 am at the Upazila Parishad premises. The Election Officer invited 15 people from the Upazila Executive Officer, OC, party leaders and activists, civil society and the student movement against discrimination through an invitation letter. The invited guests participated in the rally wearing T-shirts with writings on the theme of Voters' Day. 15 coordinators of the student movement against discrimination participated in the rally. They were given only three T-shirts. Later, when the student coordinators went to return the T-shirts to Election Officer Ayesha Khatun, she was forced to take off the T-shirts from their office employees and try to give them to them. The representatives of the student movement expressed their anger by coming to the journalists instead of taking the T-shirts.
Arafat Islam, the coordinator of the student movement against discrimination in the upazila's Barotara union, said, "The upazila election officer invited fifteen of us on National Voters' Day. While everyone was participating in the rally and gathering, only three were allowed to wear T-shirts. When everyone started talking about this, the election officer later called the office and took off the T-shirts used by the employees and asked us to wear them. We were humiliated by this."
Shahinur Alam, spokesperson for the anti-discrimination student movement, said, "When the election officer invited us, he said that we would be given 15 T-shirts. Accordingly, all 15 of us came. He gave us only three T-shirts, and the protesters expressed their anger over this."
Upazila Election Officer Ayesha Khatun said, "They could not arrive on time. That is why it was not possible to give them T-shirts. I gave them the few that were there. Later, I tried to give them to the bankers, but they left without taking them."
