2 varsity campus polls heading for mess?

Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) have both announced that their campus election will be held on Sept 25 - just a few weeks after the new batch of students enter the public universities.

However, it is still not clear whether the other public universities will also hold theirs at the end of September.

"There is no official announcement yet from the other campuses," said Mohd Taufiq Abdul, (right) who leads the national-level Pro-Mahasiswa Nasional student group.

"But from the information we have gathered, it might not be held concurrently on Sept 25. Some will be in September and others will be at the end of October," Taufiq said.

According to a notice uploaded on the UPM student affairs department's website, the university's vice-chancellor has fixed Sept 13 for nominations with polling scheduled for Sept 25.

This effectively means that UPM's nomination day is less than a week from the orientation week, which is held concurrently for new intakes in all public universities.

Meanwhile, UM campus authorities have also put out a similar announcement.

‘Too close to orientation, convocation'

Contacted by Malaysiakini yesterday, Taufiq expressed concern that public university authorities were not well prepared to effectively handle campus polls in such a situation.

He said besides orientation week, all campuses were expected to hold their convocations around October, which meant the campus authorities would have to handle three major events in the next two months.

"With the campus administrations having to handle the registration and orientation for new students and convocation at the same time, I worry that the campus elections will be chaotic."

Malaysia Youth and Students Democratic Movement (Dema) spokesperson Wong Swee Nee also pointed out that new students would not have sufficient time to learn about and understand campus elections and politics, since they are just entering their campuses this week.

Wong expressed concern that this would give an unfair advantage to a rival university student camp that is seen as pro-establishment.

"This week is orientation week and it is handled by the pro-establishment camp. Besides, the administration also tried to stop other students from approaching the freshies.

"This is believed to be part of their preparation for the campus election," she said.

Interference by ‘a certain party'?

Taufiq also claimed that there might be interference from "a certain political party" as a result of a number of recent incidents, including the allegation that a team has been set up by the ruling party to "manipulate" university student body elections.

Students not in the pro-establishment wing have claimed that several Umno leaders, government agencies and police officers are involved in a covert operation dubbed ‘Opps 2020'.

On June 21, Pro-Mahasiswa Nasional and Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia revealed details of an meeting they said was held on Jan 25, 2012, among Umno leaders, ministers' aides, government agencies and police officers to organise ‘Opps2020' to ensure victory for pro-establishment groups in this year's campus polls. 

However, Umno Youth exco member Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, (left) who was named in the list of attendees, rubbished the claim and declared the minutes as fake.

"Umno will definitely deny (the allegation), but our information reveals that there is interference from the highest levels of government," said Taufiq.

The campus elections were initially scheduled for t March this year, but the university administrations met and decided to put them off to September.