'Anti-establishment' candidates retained control over student representative councils in four key public universities in yesterday's nationwide campus elections.

This is despite a major campaign by 'pro-establishment' students, allegedly supported by campus authorities, to take over the country's top universities.

'Anti-establishment' students remained in power in Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) - some with a lower majority - and succeeded in regaining control in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

However, 'pro-establishment' teams (popularly known as Aspirasi Kerajaan, or 'government asipiration') won in the 'anti-establishment' strongholds of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Results were not immediately available for the elections in university colleges in Peninsular Malaysia, as well as in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

'Anti-establishment' results

Except in UIA, 'anti-establishment' candidates saw reduced majorities compared to last year's standings.

In UM, the 'anti-establishment' candidates won 27 seats (34 last year) against 12 seats (five last year) by the 'pro-establishment' team.

In UIA, there was a landslide victory for the 'anti-establishment' team which won 34 of the 37 seats. Their rivals took the remaining seats uncontested.

There were marginal wins for 'anti-establishment' teams in USM (19 seats) and at the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Perak (13), where they scraped through with a majority of a single seat in each.

In UTM, they won 30 of the 45 seats, dumping their rivals who had taken power last year with a majority of seven then.

A student leader in the winning camp attributed the victory to "clean and transparent" elections this year.

"We believe this was due to the newly-appointed undergraduates affairs deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Ahmad Kamal Idris," the student said.

"He intends to establish a cordial relationship with all the students and wants to convince us to accept the university's authority after the elections. This is why we didn't face obstacles while campaigning, unlike in the past."

The situation was a far cry from that last year, when a group of UTM students had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, alleging irregularities during the campus elections.

Complaint in UPM

The polls in Universiti Institut Teknologi Malaysia (UiTM) and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) virtually saw a clean sweep of posts by the 'pro-establishment' faction, which lost only one seat in UUM.

In UPM, the 'pro-establishment' thumped their rivals 30-15, gaining revenge for last year's outing when they lost 11-34.

However, a disgruntled student claimed this was a "fake result", describing it as "ridiculous" for an 'anti-establishment' candidate to have obtained only one vote yesterday.

"The new computer voting system did not allow us to monitor the vote-counting process. Previously, we had a polling agent present. However, under the new system, the university only announced the result without going through manual counting," the student claimed.

"We don't know what happened to all our votes and whether these had been taken into account...this is not at all transparent."

He said there were plans to lodge an official complaint with the university on the 'one candidate, one vote' incident, adding that students were confident the results would be over-ruled.

UKM's 'pro-establishment' faction garnered 23 seats this year against nine won by rivals - last year, the results were the exact opposite.

Several UKM students told malaysiakini that the serial number of their ballot papers had been recorded by university officials after they had cast their vote. They feared this would enable the authorities to trace how they had voted.

"They threatened students with this tactic, saying they can trace the vote according to the records. If students don't vote for the university-sponsored candidate, they might be expelled. This goes against the basic principle of elections," said a student.

Campus elections this year were tainted with allegations of ' money politics ' in several universities. Family members of 'anti-establishment' candidates were allegedly subjected to harassment via threatening phone calls.