As the results of elections at public universities, which end today, began to be declared it became clear the Islamist stranglehold of student unions had been broken. The Muslim Brotherhood lost a majority of its seats while Salafist candidates, competing in student elections for the first time, trailed even further behind. Election monitors, including the Association of Freedom of Thinking and Expression, say secular opposition groups and independents secured around 73 per cent of student votes in Cairo, Ain Shams, Alexandria, Menoufiya, Benha, Zagazig, Minya and Assiut. The sharp decline in the Brotherhood's popularity on campus has led some observers to predict a similar collapse in its vote in professional syndicates and unions. Opposition candidates fought the elections in a single coalition, Sawt Al-Talaba (the Students' Voice). It included representatives from the Dostour, the Popular Current, the Social Popular Alliance Party (SPAP), the Revolutionary Socialists and the 6 April movement. In Cairo University, Egypt's largest campus, independent candidates and candidates affiliated to the opposition swept the polls in the faculties of commerce, law, arts and political science. In Alexandria University the Brotherhood vote collapsed as coalition candidates took 56.4 per cent of the seats and independents a further 20 per cent. Salafis secured just 0.52 per cent of the vote in nine faculties. In Minya University the Students' Voice and independents took more than 61 per cent of the vote in 13 out of 17 faculties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi electoral list trailing on 29.8 per cent. The elections are the first to be staged under new bylaws drafted by the Egyptian Student Union (ESU) in 2012. At the time the regulations aroused controversy, having been agreed by the Brotherhood dominated ESU behind closed doors and ratified without being put to a vote. Constitution Party leader Mohamed Al-Baradei hailed the results as a sign that Egypt's prospects are improving. “The university students' elections have inspired me and given me hope,” he said on his Twitter account. Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref denied the results were a rebuff for the group, claiming it had only contested half of all seats. “We ran in 4,931 out of 9,680 seats and won 2,653 of them, more than half the seats in which we stood,” Aref posted on his official Facebook page on Thursday. Aref accused opposition forces of spreading false information to distort the image of the Brotherhood. Sohaib Mohamed, secretary-general of the ESU and a member of the Brotherhood, also accused the media of twisting facts. He said that opposition members won less than 10 per cent of seats, with the rest going to independents. “The media ignored that independents won most of the seats. They are not an organised bloc. They are fragmented and have no political affiliation,” said Mohamed. “In recent years independents have regularly won most of the seats. After the elections we all work together to serve our colleagues and the educational process.” He added that the Muslim Brotherhood got more than 28 per cent of the votes in Ain Shams University while between them opposition groups got less than 40 per cent. Members of the opposition who participated in the polls say they coordinated with independent groups across university campuses. The Constitution Party's Nour Youssef explained that in universities like Benha and Zagazig, where the opposition did not have enough popularity to win an “action group” was founded to provide support to independent candidates standing against Muslim Brotherhood nominees. Youssef added that in previous elections the Muslim Brotherhood had managed to convince independent winners to join the group, something unlikely to happen this time round. Mohamed Ebeid, an activist and organiser in Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh's Strong Egypt Party, argues that the general mood on university campuses is against the Muslim Brotherhood. “Nobody wants President Mohamed Morsi's policies to be brought on campus. Students want their unions to offer real services and not to be used in the Muslim Brotherhood's political game.” Ebeid added that the Strong Egypt Party, in coalition with Life Makers, the charitable group founded by Islamic preacher Amr Khaled, had campaigned on improved educational services, promising to press hard for an increase in the budget allocated to higher education. Yousri Al-Azabawi, an expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, warns that it is simplistic to assume the results of student union elections will be repeated in parliamentary polls. Students, says Al-Azabawi, have a higher level of education than the general populace and are more objective in their decision-making. He does, however, think the student results bode ill for the Brotherhood's chances in professional syndicates.
