Students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor are crying foul over the recently concluded campus election, claiming that the votes were tampered with.

Following the election, five students and two campus officials produced a report bearing evidence which showed that the election was 'not transparent, mishandled and conducted unfairly'.

But the report was rejected by the university authorities without reason, the students who requested anonymity told malaysiakini today.

A copy of the report was also faxed to malaysiakini . Among others, it alleged that the election of the Engineering and Geoinformation faculty was fraught with 'phantom votes'.

The report also claimed that voting boxes were shifted from their original position after it had been arranged in the voting room at 10.30pm after the election concluded on Nov 26.

"The above incidents show that there are certain quarters who want to tamper with the election results," said a witness in the 10-page report.

The report urged university authorities to investigate how the voting boxes were shifted from their original position when nobody was allowed to enter the area between 10.30pm on Nov 26 and 9.00 am the next day.

The students also claimed that they have photographs - taken in the presence of security guards - to prove that the boxes were moved.

'Engineered' votes

Another witness in the report cited an observer who noted that there were irregularities in the voting serial numbers during the counting session.

"There were voting papers starting with the serial numbers 01XX, 02XX and 03XX when the number for the Engineering and Geoinformation faculty was supposed to begin with 0403," the witness said.

According to the report, the voting papers were suspiciously crossed in the same fashion and there were many papers with serial numbers 00xx, 01xx, 02xx and 03xx which later became spoilt votes.

"Too many papers have the same problem, crossed in the same pattern, and looked as if they were done in a hurry. A student would definitely take his or her time to vote carefully," said one of the witnesses.

The Engineering and Geoinformation faculty has an electorate of less than 500 students (the serial number for the last voter was 0821) and only about 51 percent of the students were said to have voted. There were also spoilt votes.

However, after the results were announced, it was noted that the number of voters for the faculty stood at 806, claimed the report.

"There are 1023 students in the entire Skudai campus. Going by the percentage of students who had cast their votes, the number of voters should be 521.

"There is a contradiction between the number of students with the percentage of voters announced by the student department," alleged the report.

Nullify results

Recently, a group of mostly Chinese-based student bodies from UTM demanded university authorities to nullify the results of its student council election which concluded on Monday.

Of the total 45 seats, 'anti-establishment' students won 25 while 'pro-establishment' students' took 17. Three seats are vacant as no candidates were fielded.

The results showed that the pro-establishment forces improved their position significantly from last year's polls, where they only won two seats.

In a protest letter sent to the media, the disgruntled students said the university's student affairs department should investigate all allegations of wrongdoings during the recent election, including the 'phantom vote' charge.

UTM deputy vice-chancellor Dr Mohamad Mansor could not be reached for comment.