The pro- Mahasiswa faction performed better this year, clinching the majority of seats at two out of five public university elections for student bodies held yesterday.

NONE The most significant win for the group was its victory in Universiti Malaya (UM), the nation's oldest university, where they won 23 out of 41 seats contested.

The group managed to sweep all nine campus seats contested and won 14 out of the 32 faculty seats.

This is a major improvement of the group's fortunes since its lost to rival camp Aspirasi last year.

Student aspirations vs government's

Back then, the pro- Mahasiswa faction managed to clinch only 17 seats.

The pro- Mahasiswa faction is a national student activist movement that is generally critical of the government and seeks greater involvement of students in the campus administration.

Their rivals took up the name ' Aspirasi ' because they are said to uphold the 'government's aspirations', and are traditionally more accommodating of the authorities.

UM is traditionally a hotbed for student activism but the Aspirasi faction has been increasingly influential over the past decade.

Meanwhile over at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), the pro- Mahasiswa faction finally ended a seven-year drought to secure the majority of seats.

They won 22 seats while the Aspirasi camp won 15. Among others, the pro-Mahasiswa group claimed that students voted against the Aspirasi camp due to unhappiness over water shortages and poor Internet services.

Improvements elsewhere

At Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the pro- Mahasiswa camp did not win the most seats, but managed to improve its standing by securing 14 seats, up from none last year. The Aspirasi camp's haul is now down to 24 seats. An independent candidate won one seat.

At Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the pro- Mahasiswa camp improved its standing by winning 11 seats, up from 10 the previous year.

They were still trounced by the Aspirasi camp, which took 31 seats. One seat was won by an "independent" candidate.

Meanwhile, at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the pro- Mahasiswa camp performed poorer than the year before, down to 12 seats from 18 the previous year.

The Aspirasi camp took 38 seats while five others were won by 'independents'.

Late this evening, it was announced that the pro-Mahasiswa faction triumphed at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) polls, winning 23 out of 26 seats up for grabs.