It was a landslide victory for the popularly termed 'anti-establishment' students who swept all the seven general constituency seats in the Universiti Malaya campus election which ended yesterday.

Sources told malaysiakini today that the 'anti-establishment' group won 27 faculty seats while their rivals clinched the remaining five.

On Thursday, the vote count for the general constituency seats and two education faculty seats was suspended after the 'anti-establishment' students alleged that irregularities had occurred in the faculty's polling.

Fresh polling was held yesterday for the two faculty seats which were subsequently won by the 'pro-establishment' group.

There are 16 faculties in the university, each with two seats contested.

Apart from the two education faculty seats, the 'anti-establishment' candidates lost both seats in the sports centre and one seat in the economics faculty.

Last year, the 'anti-establishment' students won 36 out of 48 seats. This year's polls saw a reduction in the number of general constituency seats.

The 'anti-establishment' students in UM are referred to as 'Gagasan' while the 'pro-establishment' students are aligned to the Universiti Malaya Undergraduates Coalition Council (MGMUM).

While the 'party system' is disallowed in most universities, it is an open secret that most students are aligned to some group or other.

'Anti-establishment' dominance

For the past few years, 'anti-establishment' students have generally dominated the student councils in public universities.

This year, too, saw their dominance in elections in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia, losing only in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

The UTM 'anti-establishment' group alleged that their campus polls were tainted with irregularities and ballot boxes were tampered with.

Last year's UTM polls were also smeared by such allegations. Students who documented the irregularities raised the issue with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).

Some of these students were later subjected to disciplinary action.