Campus clashes mark student council elections

By Thameen Kheetan

AMMAN - The University of Jordan (UJ) on Thursday witnessed tribal-based violence and riots as students elected their representatives for the coming year.

Stones, litter, pieces of wood and glass covered parts of the UJ campus near the faculties of business, law, arts and educational sciences following clashes between hundreds of students belonging to different tribes just before the results were announced late Saturday.

No casualties were reported, as the students left the campus and many continued their celebration on nearby streets.

The student council election, in which 408 candidates competed, marked the third since the UJ administration decided to make the student body fully elected, after appointing half the members and speaker in the previous seven years.

The polls, in which 78 seats were garnered by a mixture of tribal, Islamist and independent representatives, had witnessed clashes earlier in the day near the business faculty between students belonging to different tribes, where at least one student suffered tear gas inhalation, according to bystanders.

An eyewitness told The Jordan Times that campus security personnel fired tear gas to disperse the students, while the UJ administration claimed that outsiders were responsible for the evening clashes as well as the tear gas.

Civil Defense Department personnel rushed to the scene with an ambulance and treated one student for tear gas inhalation, while the faculty building that was serving as a polling center was closed and voting was briefly suspended.

Abed Kharabsheh, UJ vice president and head of the elections committee, said outsiders managed to bypass security measures and illegally enter the campus to incite the crowds and spark violence.

He insisted that UJ students acted in a “civilized and democratic manner” and that the elections had been going smoothly.

Kharabsheh said the tear gas incident had “no significant influence” over the electoral process, adding that university security apprehended the perpetrator and handed him over to the police.

The National Campaign for Defending Students Rights (Thabahtoona), however, claimed that the polls were indicative of a “failure of higher education policies”.

“Restrictions on student freedoms, the one-person, one-vote system and the crackdown on student movements will only lead to entrenching sub-national sentiments and more university violence,” the youth campaign, that is backed by leftist and Islamist opposition parties, said in a statement, a copy of which was made available to The Jordan Times.

Students at the UJ Aqaba branch will head to polls on Sunday to choose the remaining 15 members of the student body, while 10 candidates had already won by acclamation in several faculties at the main campus in the capital.

Over 35,000 students are enrolled in the two branches of the university.

24 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=32913.