Bersih, the coalition for clean and fair elections, has expressed its support for student activists protesting against the new election dates for campus student bodies, which was suddenly brought forward to next week.

The coalition's steering committee said in a statement yesterday that the decision to "suddenly" hold campus elections next week was "unjust and unconstitutional" as these polls had been postponed since March this year.

NONE It is also "unprecendented and unjustified" for the student body elections to be held simultaneously at all public universities on Sept 20 and 25, it noted.

"This sudden announcement of the campus elections is further proof that there seems to be an intent by the government to manipulate the elections.

"Moreover, the announcement by the authorities is a departure from the normal procedure, where universities are given autonomy to decide on election dates," it said.

It also ticked off university authorities for reducing the campus election campaign period from six days to three days since 2010, described it as "unrealistic".

"There are 15,000 students on the campuses and the candidates also have to attend lectures and classes during the campaign days," Bersih said.

'Let students assemble'

It also urged the authorities to respect the students' right to assemble peacefully at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday as they had planned to protest against the election dates being fixed at the eleventh hour.

In a statement earlier this week, student group Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia said the campus student body elections should have taken place in April this year at the latest, after the dissolution of the student representative councils in February.

However, the polls have been repeatedly put off by the campus authorities.

The group is supported by Gabungan Mahasiswa Islam Se-Malaysia, Malaysia Youth and Students Democratic Movement (Dema) and Pro-Mahasiswa Nasional.

Students at Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Malaya Perlis will vote on Sept 20 while those at Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will hit the ballot box on Sept 25.

Nomination day for UPM is today while that for the USM and UM will be on Sept 21.