A number of candidates in the recently concluded Universiti Teknologi Malaysia campus elections claimed that the university administration made last-minute changes to the election rules to apparently favour pro-establishment students.

According to the disgruntled candidates, UTM's Student Affairs Department lowered the academic requirement for election candidates from 3.0 cumulative points average to 2.5 on nomination day without giving prior notice to the students.

Beginning this year, public universities in Malaysia imposed stricter campus election rules which included a minimum standard of academic achievement for students who aspire for student council offices.

While most universities have set the minimum academic standard at 2.5 CPA, UTM had set a tougher requirement - candidates must obtain at least a 3.0 CPA out of a possible 4.0 in their academic results before they are eligible to contest in the campus elections.

This would mean candidates in UTM would need to have at least an overall B average in their academic results. However, the university authority was alleged to have changed this policy at the eleventh hour on nomination day on Nov 19.

Pro-establishment students

The disgruntled students alleged that the last-minute change has enabled about 15 pro-establishment students to be eligible to contest the elections.

The disgruntled students are seeking a meeting with the university vice-chancellor, Prof Ir Dr Mohd Zulkifli Mohd Ghazali, to clarify the matter.

They hope that the 15 candidates whose academic results are below 3.0 CPA will also come along to explain how they were aware of the changes in requirement while others did not.

Seven of these candidates are said to have won in the seats they contested.

Many universities had imposed such academic requirement for candidates seeking office as a measure to deter student with weak academic results from holding office. The government claimed that some students neglected their studies as they are actively involved in politics, notably opposition politics.

According to the students, the university's assistant registrar in-charge of the elections was unaware of the changes on nomination day. The matter had then to be confirmed with deputy vice-chancellor of Student Affairs, Prof Dr Mohamed Mansor Abdullah.

Phantom voters

The students also claim that this year's elections were unfairly handled and that there were a number of discrepancies.

They added that candidates were only allowed to print 50 posters and they were banned from campaigning in the lecture halls.

In a press statement, the students claim that Geo-Information faculty name list showed there should be only 500 students voted on the election day.

However, the results in the faculty showed 806 votes.

"How could this happen?" asked David Yeo, a final year student activist at UTM, "Were these phantom voters?".

When contacted by malaysiakini , Yeo did not rule out the possibility that human error in marking the name list. However, he expressed his reservation over such a possibility.

In light of these incidents, the students said they doubted the election had been carried out properly and hoped that UTM could re-organise the campus election.

UM alleges mishandling

Besides UTM, candidates in Universiti Malaya also alleged mishandling in their campus elections this year. They said university authorities 'favoured' certain candidates over others. The 'favoured' candidates are believed to be 'pro-establishment'.

In this week's student elections around the country, 'anti-establishment' elements continue to dominate the student councils in major public universities.

In UTM, the 'anti-establishment' elements were believed to have captured about 28 out of 45 seats. Meanwhile, in Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, University Technology Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, more than two-thirds of the seats contested were clinched by those regarded as anti-establishment.

However, the 'pro-establishment' group were reported to have made a clean sweep in less-established universities where opposition forces are not well-entrenched.

They include Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Malaysia Sabah as well as the two newly established, Kolei Universiti Islam Malaysia and Kolej Universiti Institut Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn. There are 13 public universities in Malaysia.