Student apathy on campus is not something new but has been going on since the 1960s, according to incumbent University student council president Carl Grech.
Mr Grech was speaking at a campus debate with Andre Vella, also candidate for the post of KSU president under the Moviment Indipendenti ticket.
The debate was held in view of today’s election, and was organised by insiteronline.com and chaired by student journalist Claire Bonello.
This year’s election was hotter than usual after the censorship of student newspaper Ir-Realta’ featured prominently in the debate on the elections, since supporters of the newspaper are claiming it was KSU members elected on the SDM ticket who initially reported the paper to University authorities.
In fact, the movement is made up of newspaper editor Mark Camilleri, Alternattiva Demokratika Żgħażagħ president Andre’ Vella and Moviment Graffiti member Robert Louis Fenech, who are contesting the election with anti-SDM propaganda.
The censorship issue resurfaced in the debate, with Mr Grech replying to accusations that it was KSU members who reported student newspaper Ir-Realta’. He said he had no interest in reporting fellow students, and he had also spoken to editor Mark Camilleri to inform him of the rector’s decision to ban the eighth edition of the paper.
Mr Vella rebutted that the precincts officer at University had testified in court saying it was a KSU member who reported the paper to the authorities.
In the court transcript, seen by The Times, precincts officer Joe Camilleri had initially mentioned “a member of KSU” as reporting the paper to the authorities, however, upon further interrogation had changed his tune to “someone from the part of students”.
Mr Grech said he knew his team and there was no talk of reporting the paper at the student council.
The movement’s proposals to do away with “pussyfooting” when it came to decisions being taken at the KSU were also attacked by Mr Grech, who said KSU operated in a manner which was responsible towards students.
When asked how the SDM in KSU would guarantee student representation even though some SDM members were Nationalist Party activists and some actually worked with its media, Mr Grech said KSU was on the students’ side, as evidenced during the lecturers’ strike last year.
During the same debate, Mr Vella accused Mr Grech, SDM and the KSU of being “fascist” around five times.
The KSU election works on a first past the post system, whereby students vote for a particular candidate for a particular post, and the candidate who gets most votes for a particular post gets elected. This means there could possibly be a coalition between the movement and SDM if the former’s candidates got more votes than their counterparts on the SDM ticket.
However, recently, KSU elections have seen groups being elected en bloc since many students chose to cast a block vote instead of voting for candidates individually.