Election fever is heating up on campus with Moviment Independenti claiming it is being prevented from mounting an effective campaign to challenge the Christian Democrat incumbents for Thursday's election.
In a press statement, the movement said the University's electoral commission was trying to find a way of disqualifying it by claiming its posters broke the rules.
The movement, fronted by Mark Camilleri, who gained notoriety when his campus newspaper was banned from University for including an "obscene" short story, claimed it had been asked to tone down its posters in the campaign against Studenti Demokristjani Maltin (SDM).
One of its posters features president of the University Students' Council (KSU) Carl Grech, flanked by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, saying: "We approve!"
A similar poster features extreme rightwing politician Norman Lowell with the same tag line.
Another asks: "Disgusted by SDM?" and features a young man vomiting over a toilet.
"Through telephone calls and internet conversations members of the commission have been threatening us with their absolute power. This is another proof of how SDM is trying to crush any opposition on campus by any means necessary. On the other hand, we will not make any compromises with these tin-pot dictators," the movement said.
The electoral commission has denied threatening anyone with disqualification and simply pointed out that the teams were bound by the KSU statute, as well as its code of ethics.
Chief commissioner Lucianne Caruana said there had been no instructions or complaints regarding the posters.
"All we did was forward them the code of ethics," she said.
When contacted, a spokesman for SDM said the organisation made no complaints but the commission had every right to reject posters that went against the code of ethics.
"This year the commission is stressing against negative campaigning," the spokesman added.
SDM yesterday launched its electoral programme, where among other things it proposed a €10,000 fund to bolster library resources and another fund for student organisations.
Since the independent movement is only contesting three posts, the election will pitch six candidates against each other.
The movement is presenting Andre Vella for president, Robert Louis Fenech for general secretary and Mr Camilleri for social policy coordinator, while SDM is proposing incumbent president Mr Grech, Karl Aguis for general secretary and Matthew Bonnett for social policy coordinator.
The movement decided to challenge SDM after a heated annual general meeting last week where social democrats Pulse proposed a reform to the electoral system but walked out before it was voted upon and discarded.
Pulse decided not to contest the elections.
Last year, SDM beat stiff competition by another independent team called Act.