Pro-establishment students, also known as the Aspirasi (Aspiration) camp, won control of most of the public universities in the campus polls held yesterday.

Of the 17 universities, only Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) bucked the pro-government trend with anti-establishment students bagging 28 seats against Aspirasi's four in the students representative council.

The government has accused the anti-establishment students in that campus of having links with opposition Islamic party PAS.

But Aspirasi forces ruled the day in other major traditional campuses, where only a few years ago anti-government sentiments were pronounced. Aspirasi has always been strong in the newer universities and easily retained their control in these varsities.

In Universiti Malaya, the country's oldest educational institution, pro-establishment students won 36 against anti-establishment's three. There will however be a re-vote next Wednesday in two seats - both in the law faculty - after some irregularities were found in the results.

In Penang's University Sains Malaysia, Aspirasi crushed their rivals by 23 - 5 and in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the result was 29 - 5 in Aspirasi's favour.

Meanwhile, the result in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) was 42 - 6 in a poll which was boycotted by anti-establishment students for the second time in a row. The six seats were won by independent candidates.

Anti-establishment students mounted a strong challenge in Johor's Universiti Teknoloji Malaysia, but still it wasn't enough as they too went down to Aspirasi by 27 - 18.

All is under control

Over the years, pro-establishment students - with the active assistance from the campus authorities - have made remarkable inroads into the country's campuses.

The universities have implemented a slew of new rules, including electronic voting, which anti-establishment students claimed to be favouring their Aspirasi rivals.

They have cried foul over such unfair elections rules and have repeatedly called for the Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam, to monitor the polls. This has however been rejected by the university authorities.

The new rules proved effective as anti-establishment managed to wrest control over half of the campuses by 2004, with top universities still remaining in the hands of anti-establishment students.

However, anti-establishment students boycotted the elections in 2005, complaining about unfair electoral rules and dirty tactics employed by their rivals.

Thus for the first time in the history of student activism, anti-establishment students lost control in all universities last year.

Kedah's Universiti Utara Malaysia - the only one of the 18 public universities in the nation which did not hold election yesterday - will be holding its poll for 39 seats for the 2006/2007 student representatives' council on Oct 1 as the campus is currently having its semester break.

The black spots in campus polls