GayleAnnicia Gayle is the new president of the Guild of Undergraduates at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona. With 673 of a possible 11,000 student votes, the final-year Social Science student yesterday became the first female elected to the post in over 20 years.
The lone female candidate in the field of five contenders, won ahead of her closest rival, Alfred Dawes, from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, by 173 votes. Junior Rose clinched the post of vice-president.
However, many students, like final year Communi-cations major, Tenneisha Hibbert, who stayed away from the student polls last week, feel that University politics has reached an all-time low. It is felt that many thoughtless ballots were cast by friends of the candidates who went up for election. There is also a general feeling of apathy and betrayal, especially in light of the recent 'Benz' scandal involving the 2000-2001 Guild executive.
"I didn't vote because it (UWI elections) is a carbon copy of the Jamaican election system, partisan just the same," said Hibbert.
"Political parties are supporting candidates on campus. I don't know about this year but for the last three years that is what has happened. The students who vote, behave like JLP and PNP supporters. There is no finesse on their part as University students," she added.
Some, like second-year, Social Science student, Resa Gooding, said she voted because she was "harassed." "They just harassed me to vote and I voted just to get them off my back," said Gooding.
Approximately three weeks ago, a group of postgraduate students lashed out at the poor political practices influencing student votes on the campus and prepared a set of guidelines to ensure "free and fair elections."
Top among their list of guidelines was a $10,000 campaign budget limit set for each candidate in the election in order to stem unfair competition from candidates who were receiving financial assistance from the major political parties.
One member of the group, Nadeen Spence, noted that observations of elections in the past, showed that money spent by student candidates ran into the "hundreds of thousands."
Despite the low voter turn-out, which reflected less than 20 per cent of the student population, Ms. Gayle says one of her main goals this year is to get the dormant student population more involved in University politics.
"I want to maximise student participation in the decision-making process on everything that concerns them in this University," said Gayle. "We are all stakeholders here and like in any organisation, if you don't feel that you are a part of the process you will feel isolated," she added.
