Wednesday September 26, 2012

Pro-Aspirasi sweeps to victory in campus polls

PETALING JAYA: The pro-establishment group, Pro-Aspirasi, has won with huge majorities in campus elections in seven public universities.

It won in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM).

In UPM, Pro-Aspirasi took 39 of the 47 seats while Pro-Mahasiswa bagged seven.

Pro-Aspirasi candidates also swept 34 of 36 seats in UUM, 18 of 20 seats in UMT, 22 of 24 in UMP and won every seat in UPNM.

<b>High-tech:</b> Students casting their votes electronically in UPM, Serdang.

High-tech: Students casting their votes electronically in UPM, Serdang.

Fifteen public universities held their campus elections yesterday.

Pro-Aspirasi is seen to be pro-establishment while Pro-Mahasiswa is perceived to be anti-establishment.

However, in Universiti Malaya (UM), conflicting reports have emerged about who actually won the campus elections.

Although the Pro-Mahasiswa student group claimed that it had won 22 of the 43 seats contested, edging out its rival which had 19 seats, Pro-Aspirasi insisted that it had actually won 21 while Pro-Mahasiswa only bagged 20.

Two more seats were tied between the two groups.

Marwan Kahar, chairman of Penggerak Mahasiswa, which is in the UM's Pro-Aspirasi camp, claimed that the Pro-Mahasiswa supporters had jumped the gun in declaring their win.

“Of the 22 candidates they claim are theirs, two candidates are actually independent.

“We'll leave these two candidates to decide which side they'll be on,” he said.

However, Pro-Mahasiswa alleged that their rivals actually only garnered 17 seats instead of 19 because the other two seats were won by independents.

The UM campus polls results are unofficial as it is subject to a 24-hour objection period and a further 24-hour appeal period.

The final results will only be known tomorrow.

In Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Pro-Mahasiswa won 18 out of the 28 seats while Pro-Aspirasi bagged 10.

Pro-Aspirasi won most of the 45 seats contested in the three Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) campuses in Penang and Kelantan.

At the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), deputy rector (Student Affairs) Datuk Dr Mizan Hitam said the election results could not be formally announced due to a technical problem during the e-voting process.

“Some votes were not captured due to the incomplete encryption process,” he said, adding that a re-election exercise was expected to be carried out in a week's time.

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