Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed and vice-chancellors of public universities have rejected the Human Rights Commission's (Suhakam) proposal on how to ensure a clean and fair campus polls.

According to Suhakam commissioner N Siva Subramaniam, a meeting was held last month with Mustapa to discuss the feasibility of introducing human rights courses in universities and the campus polls which falls on Sept 21.

The minister also arranged a meeting between Suhakam and the vice-chancellors on Sept 1.

"We explained to him (Mustapa) the need to have a free and fair elections, where students can participate according to the principle of democracy... as far as the minister is concerned, he is unsupportive of the ideas (forwarded by Suhakam)," Siva said.

Suhakam had also requested to monitor the elections and be allowed to hold frequent meetings with university students, he added.

Strange and cruel

The commissioner said this after receiving a complaint from student coalition Malaysian Student Solidarity (known by its Malay acronym SMM) at the commission's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

SMM complained about the alleged unfair campus polls practices which marginalised candidates from the 'anti-establishment' faction.

Addressing the group of about 30 students, Siva said Suhakam chairperson Abu Talib Othman had also expressed disdain over the issues related to the polls.

"At times, electing a prefect (in schools) is more a more democratic (process) than campus polls. Anyone can contest. But when it comes to campus polls, we can see (that the regulations are) tight, cruel and strange," he said.

Among the complaints raised are the placing of ballot boxes in residential colleges, which students claimed allowed university authorities to intimidate them into voting and making it easier to trace those who voted for 'anti-establishment' candidates.

Postponement sought

Other outstanding issues include the implementation of e-voting in Universiti Putra Malaysia and the International Islamic University, hefty payments to the university authorities to contest in the polls and the insufficient time frame for student to prepare for the elections.

The students urged Suhakam to use its influence to seek a postponement to the polls and set up a committee to review the regulations.

Speaking to reporters later, Siva said Suhakam would take immediate action such as forwarding recommendations to the deputy prime minister's office, which oversees Suhakam.

Last year, Suhakam failed in its bid to monitor the polls after being given the run-around at the eleventh hour.