The anti-establishment Pro-Mahasiswa faction blames alleged government conspiracy dubbed 'Opps 2020' as among the reasons for its less than outstanding performance in several major public universities polls.

NONE "Within the campus is delineation issue (which spilt the faculties to different zones) and outside the campus is 'OPPS 2020'," said Mohd Taufiq Abdul ( right ), former national president of Pro-Mahasiswa, while explaining why the student group won 3 seats fewer in University Malaya (UM)'s polls than in previous elections.

"Pro-Mahasiswa was not only facing (pro-government) Aspirasi faction and the student affairs departments, but also Umno's presence in the campus to ensure that the students will continue support them in the coming election."

Pro-Mahasiswa had previously accused Umno and several government agencies of being involved in a covert operation named 'Opps 2020' to fix victories for Aspirasi group in all 20 public universities, in view of coming polls.

However, party Youth exco member Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, who was named in the list of those involved, had rubbished the claim, declaring the document a fake. The allegation was also brushed aside by Deputy Higher Education Saifuddin Abdullah.

Taufiq had claimed that new media unit of Umno youth had even entered campuses to assist Aspirasi groups to counter the online campaign conducted by Pro-Mahasiswa teams.

"Pro-Mahasiswa had to face Umno which is meddling in campus politics, but we still could defend UM," he said, referring to the one seat advantage enjoyed by the student group over its rival in the campus.

Aspirasi win  in least 11 varsities

In the polling result announced yesterday, Pro-Mahasiswa slipped  from 23  seats to 20, while Aspirasi bagged 19. However, there was no clear victor with neither side gaining a majority.

NONE The only convincing win was in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) with Pro-Mahasiwa taking 19 seats and Aspirasi, 8.

Meanwhile, Aspirasi has already won at least 11 out of 20 public university elections, including some major campuses like UPM and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Taufiq said Pro-Mahasiswa in other campuses also faced similar problems as UM as there was interference by the university authorities.

"In UPM, the authorities stopped Pro-Mahasiswa students from approaching freshies during orientation week."

NONE Although he admitted that Pro-Mahsiswa's performance was declining, however,  he pointed out that at least the student group was able to stop Aspirasi from capturing the 3 universities which fell to Pro-Mahasiswa last year.

"For the BN, they want to win back UM, UIA (Universiti Islam Antarabangsa) and UKM, but failed."

The election of UIA, traditionally a Pro-Mahsiswa stronghold, was suspended after an error was detected in the electronic voting system.