Monday, September 18, 2006

Only one campus to boycott student polls

source: Malaysia Kini Sep 18, 06 8:05pm

Both ‘pro-establishment’ and ‘anti-establishment’ student camps are to slug it out at major universities when nominations closed today for Thursday’s campus polls.

Unlike last year, where ‘anti-establishment’ students boycotted the polls in five top universities after complaining about unfair election rules, there will contests between the two rival groups in all campuses apart from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

The other major universities that will see a face-off between the factions are Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM).

At UPM, ‘anti-establishment’ student camp held a press conference at 11am to announce that they will be boycotting this year’s campus poll - the second year in a row.

The boycott was sparked by, among others, the use of the electronic voting system by the campus authorities which they claimed to be “not transparent”.

The electronic voting system - first implemented in 2003 - had been strongly criticised by ‘anti-establishment’ student camp because the voting process could not be subject to independent monitoring.

In USM, the 'pro-establishment' student camp drew blood by winning 10 students representative council’s seats uncontested when nominations closed this morning. There will be a contest for 15 seats.

In UIAM, each rival camp won four seats uncontested. Both factions will be vying for the remaining 24 seats.

However, candidates of 'pro-establishment' camp are believed to be at a distinct disadvantage in their attempt to retain control of the students council, which they won last year due to the poll boycott.

No clashes

At UM, the candidates of ‘anti-establishment’ student camp (left), Gagasan, and ‘pro-establishment’ camp Aspirasi, were both accompanied by 300 supporters respectively for the nominations.

The 'pro-establishment' student bag four seats uncontested while 'anti-establishment' students got two seats.

Both student camps are vying for the remaining 35 seats in the university’s students representative council.

They were armed with banners and posters, and chanted slogans throughout the nomination process but no untoward incidence was reported.

Meanwhile, in UKM, students from both camps will be contesting for 34 students representatives council’s seats.

In UTM, all 40 seats are up for contest.

As for institutions that are newly established, such as Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris and a number of university colleges, the 'pro-establishment' student camp is expected to score a landslide victory.

Last year, for the first time in the history of student activism, anti-establishment students lost control in all universities.

Over the years, pro-establishment students have made inroads into campuses with the active help from the university authorities.

Anti-establishment students have cried foul over ‘unfair’ elections rules and have repeatedly called for the Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam, to monitor the polls.

This has however been rejected by the university authorities.

Other than Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)'s students who are away for holidays, students at the remaining 17 local universities will vote for their 2006/2007 student representatives' council on Thursday































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