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Ali to lead first SU in new campus
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| Riham El Houshi / Caravan Staff CAREFUL WHO YOU VOTE FOR: Amr Khairy, a journalism and mass communication senior, casts his ballot. |
With a margin of 235 votes, political science senior Mohamed Ali became the new Student Unions (SU) president for the 2008-2009 academic year, at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Ali, a former chairperson of the SU’s public relations committee, received 989 votes while his opponent, business administration senior Ahmed Ashour, received 754 votes, in the May 5 elections.
“I feel like we can achieve something together,” said Ali, explaining that the student body is united and that the SU is open to everyone who wants to work to improve the university.
New regulations were implemented during this year’s elections to prevent the violent clashes between campaigners that plagued last year’s contest.
Unlike previous elections, which usually lasted four days, this year’s election was held on one day and candidates were requested to remain within a 10 meter distance from the ballot boxes.
The election went well, with only minor problems, said Bassel El Toukhy, a spokesperson for the Student Judicial Board (SJB). The SJB is responsible for monitoring the elections.
“The only major incident happened in [the] Falaki campus when a voter insulted an SJB member after his vote was declared invalid,” said El Toukhy. He also noted that the SJB counted 24 invalid votes during the election.
Students, however, had mixed feelings about the changes in this year’s elections.
“It is better and worse at the same time,” said
Nora Rafea, a political science senior. “[It’s} better because campaigners couldn’t nag you,[but] worse because people didn’t even know who the candidates were.”
“In the past, they bothered to tell you their plans. Now it’s like vote for this, vote for that. I received a ridiculous text message at 1 am telling me to vote for this candidate,” said Dina Zayed, a political science junior. According to Zayed, the text message said, “please trust me and do it for me...He really deserves it.”
Moreover, the SU presidential debate on April 30 didn’t satisfy many of the students. During the debate, each candidate had seven minutes to talk about his plans and candidates were allowed to ask each other five previously approved questions.
“It was useless, candidates were just attacking each other. The debate didn’t explain their plans,” said Alaa Bedewi, a mechanical engineering senior.
However, some of the students, as well as AUC security, were still happy about this year’s peaceful campaign environment.
“This year was much better. There were no harassments. It should be done this way,” said Hadia Saraya, a journalism and mass communication senior.
“There was no fighting this time; it used to be hard for us too,” said Mahmoud Hussein, a security guard in AUC.
Ashour said that even though there was some unethical behavior, the election overall was well organized. “I wanted [the] SU to be diverse, unlike any other club in the unersity, but now let’s hope for the best,” he said.
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