Juba University students elections fair, no shooting: official

June 14, 2016 (JUBA) – Juba University students of the ruling party of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) have won the students leadership election against the SPLM-IO and other political parties in a “fair” election, a senior staff of Juba University has revealed.

John Akec, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday that the alliance group of the SPLM and the African National Congress (ANC) party in South Sudan won the students election by 51% on Monday.

He said the students of the SPLM-IO with their alliance with the Democratic Party (DC) of Lam Akol and other political parties came second with 33% of votes. Independent students got 8% of the votes.

Akec further narrated that of 3,000 eligible votes, 2,000 were cast, but 8% of the votes were disqualified across all the three competing groups.

The polling stations, he added, were well organized and two observers from every party competing was present at each station.

“There were three polling stations and elections started around 9am closed around 6pm. At every polling station there [were] two student observers from every political party contesting the elections,” he said.

“An Election Committee was headed by the Dean of Students in which all political parties have a representative as well as representative of independent candidates. There was also an Oversight Committee comprising three senior professors/academics,” he added.

He further said that counting of the votes began immediately around 6pm and finished around 11pm, stressing that all political parties’ observers approved the results of the election.

“All political parties observers at each of the three polling stations were asked to sign the counting results as fair.”

NO BULLETS FIRED

Akec dismissed the allegation reported on Monday that security personnel fired bullets into the air in the University premises to disperse the students and abort the election.

“I am writing to dispel what has featured in this ST [Sudan Tribune] news report as baseless. There has never been such incident at the University of Juba. The whole election process happened on Monday and was very peaceful,” Akec said in an email sent to the Sudan tribune.

He however confirmed that there was a minor incident when an “individual” tried to enter the Juba University compound armed with weapons during the elections, but added that security personnel arrested him immediately.

“There was a security report that security apprehended an individual from outside University trying to drive into the campus with numbers of machetes (and probably some riffle into the campus – I have not been informed how many),” Akec revealed.

“The details are sketchy. Otherwise, the election was very transparent and no guns were fired in air or at any student or staff and three groups contested the student union elections,” he said.

He maintained that the election was fair and the results were accepted by all the parties that contested the top leadership position of the university students, adding no complaints were raised by any party.

“All the information was supplied to the contesting parties the same night as preliminary results any complains were invited from 9 am to 4 pm today. No issues were raised and the results were announced by the joint committees (election committee and oversight committee) at 4:30 pm.”

He also said media houses were invited to witness the election and the Minister of Higher Education, Peter Adwok Nyaba, visited the campus on Monday and Tuesday to ensure things were going on smoothly.

Akec however acknowledged that rumours spread throughout Juba on Monday, alleging that there was violence between students during the elections which prompted the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to visit the university campus.

“Unknown elements in Juba wanted to discredit the elections at any cost by circulating wild rumours of violence between students groups, but when authorities rushed to the campus (including the IGP) they found that things were calm and peaceful and no basis for those rumours,” he said.

(ST)