With campus elections around the corner, the Pro Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya (PRUM) group today alleged that the university purposely postponed its hearing for the UM8 to stop them from participating in the elections.

The UM8 were summoned for a hearing set for Dec 9, five days after the campus elections.

“The hearing was first set for Nov 7, but later postponed to Nov 18. The university postponed the date again to Dec 9 and no reason was given,” said Ammar Atan, a representative of PRUM.

“PRUM views such an action of the university administration purposely delaying the hearing, as a move to restrain a few of them from taking part in the upcoming campus elections,” he said in a press conference held today.

Three of the UM8 have expressed their interest to contest, but with the charges hanging over them, they are not eligible to be nominated as candidates.

They are Khairul Anuar, Safwan Samsuddin ( right ) and Haw Yu Hong.

“While those undergoing the proceeding do not qualify to contest as stipulated under the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, we said this is unfair and undemocratic.

“Why does the university punish students who have yet to be found guilty of wrongdoing?” he asked.

Ammar did not rule out that the university had done this so that the pro-university group would win the polls.

Also present were Safwan and Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth president Lee Jin Yang.

Ammar, a third year student in the faculty of Economic and Administration, spoke on behalf of PRUM as ambassador, a post that was created to raise awareness on issue related to campus elections.

'Election regulations changed frequently'

The group also rejected university deputy vice-chancellor Dr Rohana Yusof’s role in organising the campus elections, where the election regulations changed frequently as no effort seemed to be taken by the university to ensure a fair and democratic polls is held.

The group saw red in the reduction of three seats in post-graduate studies, which were often won by the pro-students group, and the changes of direction in candidate qualification.

Ammar challenged Rohana ( left ) to a debate over the e-voting system adopted since 2010, which the group felt was open to fraud and being easily manipulated.

“If Prof Rohana denies our accusation, we challenge her to an open debate,” he said, adding that a letter of invitation will be sent to her next week.

The debate will be organised before the nomination date on Dec 1. The debate will be turned into a dialogue session if Rohana fails to make it.

Malaysiakini has yet to get a reply from the deputy vice-chancellor after sending an email to her.