Huffing and puffing in anger, close to 100 students broke down the door to a Universiti Malaya (UM) deputy vice-chancellor’s office to protest the barring of candidates from the coming campus student body elections.

NONE The door collapsed after they shook it vigorously, causing the hinges to give way. However, they were prevented from barging into the office by a team of security guards.

The students, from the anti-establishment pro-mahasiswa faction (pro-M), earlier held a vigil outside the office of the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of student affairs, Rohana Yusof.

Parading a banner that read, “We demand that the four be given their rights”, the group also displayed the effigies of four “corpses”, which they said represented “the death of democracy” in the campus of the nation’s oldest university.

They had gathered in a protest vigil outside the deputy vice-chancellor's office from11am, and were still there this evening, expressing their displeasure with the university’s decision.

One of the four denied the opportunity to contest was snubbed for missing out on parts of the campus elections course and a student affairs department briefing session last Saturday.

           

At a press conference earlier today, the pro-M explained the that the missing parts arose from allergies the student had suffered. He had provided a doctor’s letter, which the student affairs department refused to acknowledge.

Two others, they said, were not able to do so because they were attending compulsory programmes organised by their departments.

           

'Rejected outright'

“They even produced letters from their department heads, but these were rejected outright by the department,” explained pro-M spokesperson Mohd Sabri Jamaluddin.

The fourth student denied the opportunity to contest the elections sent in his application form late, after being urgently called home to resolve a family inheritance problem.

NONE The four represented one general seat and three faculty seats pro-M is contesting.

A total of 43 seats are being contested in the UM campus elections, nine general seats, 32 faculty seats and two graduate seats.

UM’s pro-M front chairperson Farid Jalpah told Malaysiakini that the forms of two other candidates friendly to the group had also been rejected for reasons not specified.

Farid said he had met with university vice-chancellor Professor Ghauth Jasmon for clarification on the barring of the four pro-M students from contesting.

   

He said Ghauth said, during the 30-minute at the vice-chancellor’s office, that he would address their protests.

Farid also said the head of the selection committee for the student body elections had not made any objection to the nominations of the four pro-M candidates in question.

'University muted’

This morning also saw 120 pro-M students marching their candidates from the field in front of the engineering faculty towards the nomination centre at the Graduate Student’s Complex.

NONE Starting at about 8.50am, they shouted ‘students arise!”, “long live students!” and “reject e-voting!”. They also carried two huge banners that read, “university muted”.

Other than UM, four other universities, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) also held nominations for their student body elections today.

Polling day for all these universities is Feb 21, after a four-day campaign period.

Things are basically smooth in other universities, with the pro-M front in UKM seeing three of its candidates winning without contest.

However, in UPM, similar troubles ensued when six of the pro-M candidates were rejected because their nomination forms were allegedly incomplete.

The rejected candidates are appealing their rejection, with the decision on their appeal pending at the time of writing.

PHOTO GALLERY