CAIRO - Students in some public universities started the first phase of polls to elect new unions to represent them. The voters, who filled the polling stations of Cairo and Ain Shams Universities, the nation's biggest public universities, have agreed that the January 25 revolution has created a new stage of true student representation on the nation's campuses. At Cairo University, the student union elections have seen a high turnout after the Government and security agencies stopped interfering in the polls as they used to do during the Mubarak regime. The students were eager to participate in the elections, which they described as transparent and free of the intervention by the security agencies. At Ain Shams University, students have also thronged into the polling stations to elect their union members freely and without any pressure from candidates, or their supporters. “No date has been set yet to announce the final results of the elections, which would reinvigorate campus life after the January uprising,” Shaimaa Mohamed, a law student, said. In February, the Higher Council of Universities, in charge of overseeing higher education, dissolved all student unions in all public universities that were elected last year and ordered new elections during the second term, which started in March. In compliance with transparency rules, Ain Shams University administration has set up an eight-member committee, comprising seven students and a teaching staff member to monitor and supervise the whole election and vote counting processes. Contenders from the Muslim Brotherhood and leftists were not disqualified from the list of candidates as was the tradition during the Mubarak regime. However, students who have been members of the ex-ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) have not nominated themselves for this year's union elections. The students have affirmed that they will elect members, who are interested in protecting their colleagues' rights and promoting their interests. Cairo University, and the other Government-owned universities, are now without police guards, who were affiliated to the Interior Ministry. These universities have set up their own civil security units which, are responsible for safeguarding the buildings and students.
