'Anti-establishment' candidates are unlikely to retain control over students' representative councils in most public universities in campus elections to be held tomorrow.

Last year , the 'anti-establishment' (or 'pro-students') candidates retained control in key universities - Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) - and regained control in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

'Pro-establishment' teams won in the 'anti-establishment' strongholds of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), although campaigning was tainted with allegations of ' money politics ' and support of campus authorities.

In each university, the students' representative council is elected every year. Politicians have always watched the campus elections with keen interest because this is seen as ascertaining student support of political parties.

Boycott in UM

At the end of nominations last Saturday, the UM campus saw 22 of the 39 seats go uncontested to the 'pro-establishment' camp dubbed Aspirasi Kerajaan (Government Aspiration). The coup was, however, due to a boycott by the 'anti-establishment' faction.

Its candidates withdrew in protest after claiming that university officials had refused to endorse their nomination forms without reason.

(The endorsement of the vice-chancellor or residential college head is required before students are eligible to stand as candidates.)

This was the first time in eight years that 'anti-establishment' students had lost to the pro-government camp, as UM has traditionally been bastion of opposition politics and activism.

In UIA, where most students are seen to be PAS sympathisers, the implementation of e-voting and a campaign period of a day - the shortest yet - may make things difficult for 'anti-establishment' candidates.

The number of seats have also been reduced from 37 to 25 and, for the first time, have been standardised to one seat per faculty.

"This strategy is similar to the Barisan Nasional's general election strategy of redelineating electoral boundaries," said a UIA student leader who requested anonymity.

(Under the Universities and University Colleges Act, students are prohibited from speaking to the media unless they obtain written permission from the vice-chancellor.)

The student pointed out that the new ruling could halve the 'anti-establishment' team's chances of winning. It has strong support in major faculties such as law and Islamic studies, where three to four seats had previously been available for contest.

"This is just like (the parliamentary seats of) Putrajaya and Bukit Bintang... Whether in small faculties of 200 students or bigger ones with 2,000 students, the irony is that there will only be one representative," he said.

He also questioned the implementation of the e-voting system in the campus because the system was blamed for problems last year.

"The transparency of the system is highly questionable," he claimed.

Low-key preparations

In UTM, 'anti-establishment' candidates are puzzled by the low-key preparations of their rivals, although campaigning has proceeded smoothly to date.

"They are very quiet and we feel like they are not even campaigning. It seems they are very confident of winning and this situation worries us because it is similar to the situation prior to 2002, when there were major irregularities ," a candidate told malaysiakini .

As opposed to last year where the counting process was done at a single counting centre, UTM this year will have additional counting centres. This is expected to make it more difficult for students to monitor the process, the candidate added.

'Anti-establishment' candidates won in USM last year with a single seat, but the student representative in that camp has since 'crossed over' to the 'pro-establishment' camp.

A USM student leader was pessimistic about the 'anti-establishment' faction's chances, because key posts in the students' council have been dominated by rivals, and campaigning has not been active this year.

Former UPM student representative Lua Khang Wei said the e-voting system, to be used for the second time at this campus, had been supplemented with an e-nomination system for the first time.

He claimed this method of nomination had resulted in 14 'anti-establishment' candidates from contesting on the basis that they were "using the same election motto". However, six appealed and have been allowed to contest.

The elections have already been marred by allegations that campus authorities have intervened in the nomination process, and that 'anti-establishment' students were threatened and coerced to ensure the nomination of candidates favoured by the university. There is also suspicion that online polling will not be transparent or fair.