AMMAN - Activists have criticised new candidacy criteria for this week's Hashemite University (HU) student council elections, claiming they are designed to disqualify opposition party affiliated students.
The HU administration said the amendment, which was introduced this year, would give more say to the "silent majority".
HU President Suleiman Arabiyat noted that the introduction of the new condition was based upon the request of members of the outgoing student council and other student clubs.
"This article helps curb the influence of political parties and tribalism, and gives more say to the silent majority," he told The Jordan Times in a phone interview yesterday.
But according to the activists, the measure has prevented 74 students belonging to opposition parties and blocs from running in the election.
The controversial amendment stipulates that an eligible candidate must be active in "religious, national and pan-national ceremonies and cultural activities in the university".
The university administration said this condition aims to curb the influence of political parties, which are officially banned on campuses in the country, and tribal affiliations that many believe trigger bigotry.
However, the student activists said there were no records on the participation of students in these ceremonies organised by the deanship of student affairs, which leaves it to HU officials to choose their preferred candidates.
But the HU president pointed out that the administration has a folder for all students, containing "sufficient information about the participation of each student" in campus ceremonies.
Political parties described the measure as an "electoral massacre", as 36 council seats out of 58 were determined by acclamation, which means the polls will be conducted in only six out of 13 faculties at the university, situated on the outskirts of Zarqa city, northeast of the capital.
The students barred from candidacy are mostly Islamists, in addition to some belonging to various leftist parties, according to estimates of party leaders.
"The selective method which the [HU] deanship of student affairs used for candidates cannot be explained, except by a desire of the university administration to enforce tribal, racist and regional prejudice and increase the phenomenon of university violence," the Amman-based National Campaign for Defending Students Rights (Thabahtoona) said in a recent statement.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, also slammed the electoral regulations, calling for the dismissal of Arabiyat and officials responsible for the "massacre".
"By this measure, the university has violated the students' legitimate right to choose their representatives," the IAF website quoted party official Mohammad Zyoud as saying.
Islamist students yesterday staged two sit-ins on campus to protest the decision.
Thaer Eid, spokesperson of the Islamic Current bloc at the HU, noted that several students whose candidacies were denied have documents issued by the student affairs deanship certifying that they have taken part in several occasions on campus.
Saleh Abu Al Haj, a leftist student whose application was rejected, claimed all those who "oppose the deanship's policies" were denied from running in the elections, adding his participation in a campaign against transportation fee hikes last year could be one reason for excluding him.
Another criticism levelled at the HU elections was an allegation that the candidacy application form contained a question about the father's place of birth, which activists said aims to impose origin-based discrimination.
But application forms of two students that were sent to The Jordan Times yesterday by the HU administration did not contain such an item.
Arabiyat explained that the question is part of a different form that all students fill when they enrol in university, in order to prepare a database. "Those applying to run for the elections who did not fill this form had to do so before submitting their candidacy," he pointed out.
"The university's problem is not with the students, but with certain political parties, especially the IAF and other tribalists," the HU president concluded, without elaborating.
By Thameen Kheetan
© Jordan Times 2010
