Comfortable election victory for SDM in student poll

The Christian Democrats (SDM) achieved an easy win in the one-and-a-half-horse race that was this year’s election for the University Students’ Council (KSU).

In one of the lowest turnouts in years, SDM beat rivals Moviment Liberali, which contested with only five candidates out of a possible 11.

Of the 1,808 votes cast, the incumbent SDM garnered 1,166 block votes, while Moviment Liberali received 321.

Moviment Liberali, which will continue working on campus, was fronted by Mark Camilleri, the editor of student newspaper Ir-Realtà, who was not found guilty by the Magistrates’ Court of publishing a sexually explicit story. The Attorney General will be appealing.

Rival organisation Pulse did not contest for the second year running in protest at the first-past-the-post electoral system, where students choose which candidate to elect for a particular post.

Pulse had proposed changing this to a hybrid system incorporating first-past-the-post for key positions, such as president, and a proportional representation system for the rest.

“[Pulse] notes that the 13 per cent turnout registered in this year’s election confirms the need to introduce major changes to the system.

“Apart from the fact that the system is not representative in itself, the KSU executive cannot boast of representation when it only enjoys the support of a very small number of students,” the organisation said.

Incoming KSU president Stefan Balzan disagreed that the electoral system was to blame for the low turnout.

Mr Balzan, a fourth-year law student, said the two organisations had discussed the issue but they did not reach an agreement. However, this did not stop Pulse from presenting a motion to change the system during the annual general meeting, he argued.

Mr Balzan denied there was apathy, noting that various activities the KSU organised, such as Campus Fest and Student Fest, were very well attended.

He said the council’s main aim this year was to open up to as many students as possible and engage with them.

Mr Camilleri said Moviment Liberali was not satisfied with the result. “I expected more students to vote. We lost because of the 538 votes cast at the Junior College only 20 were for us, so we’ve been established as an alternative block to SDM at the University.

“Pulse isn’t our rival and we encourage them to enter into a coalition with us. Even though we want proportional representation, we still believe we should work to get elected to KSU, even though it is not in place yet,” Mr Camilleri said.

The new KSU executive consists of Mr Balzan, David Camilleri, Mario Cachia, Ruth Caruana, Thomas Bugeja, Danica Caruana, Michela Boffa, Luke Buttigieg, Anton Abela, Sara Ellul and Simon Mifsud.