PULSE present team of candidates for KSU
28 March 2011 by Franco Rizzo
In a press conference held early this afternoon, social-democratic student organisation PULSE presented 11 candidates for the upcoming Students’ Council elections, which are projected to be held on the 14th of April.
Just a week before the Annual General Meeting takes place, president Glenn Micallef put forward Pulse’s team of candidates, who, according to the organisation’s press release, “will be campaigning for a fairer electoral system”, with the aim of increasing student participation and interest in the annual Students’ Council elections. In recent years, these elections have been characterised by the low turnout of students who actually go and cast their votes.
The press conference, which was held on campus and started some minutes after the actual meeting time, focused at first on Pulse’s proposal to reform the current electoral system to introduce proportional representation. Mr Micallef stated that this proposal has undergone amendments following discussions with KSU, pointing out that the outgoing president, Carl Grech, at the beginning of his second term as KSU president, said that such reform can only move forward if consensus is reached between all the concerned parties. “That is why,” Mr Micallef added, “we believe that our slogan, ‘Together We Succeed’, will reflect the way we will lead our campaign.” Moreover, new amendments are going to be presented later on today after engaging in further discussion with Studenti Demokristjani Maltin.
The Pulse president continued by listing the candidates, which were also present for the press conference. However the roles which they will fulfil in the council were not specified. The candidates are Adam Karl Farrugia, Colin Baldacchino, Yasmin Haider, Kevin Mercieca, Kirstie Saliba, Michael Agius, Sarah Haider, Pia Micallef, Antoine Saliba, Karl Bugeja and Jonathan Muscat, who Mr Micallef said consisted of members from various organisations and with various levels of experience. Adam Karl Farrugia, Karl Bugeja, Pia Micallef, Yasmin Haider and Jonathan Muscat have all been previously involved within the KSJC structure. Mr Micallef concluded the presentation of the candidates by pointing out the importance of having a diversified and inclusive students’ council in order to achieve its goals better. “We believe that together we will succeed,” he reiterated.
In the meantime, at the University Junior College, Christian-democratic organisation SDM kick-started SDM Week 2011, which will go on until this Wednesday. SDM, at the time of publishing, still have to release their official list of their candidates. As for Moviment Liberali, a provisional list of five candidates has been provided, which include recently-acquitted Realtà editor Mark Camilleri, Robert Louis Grech, Monique Agius, Ryan Dalli and Daniel Muscat.
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March 29th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
So what will happen if Proportional Representation will not go through at the AGM? And what guarantees are in place for students that PR will function at the end of the day?
If it doesn’t go through will Pulse then still go out for election or boycott them as happened last year, leaving Moviment Liberali (at the time) standing election with it own limited resources.
I see the end result as quiet simple. If coalition building with external partners does not become the general discourse of electioneering at all levels in Malta and Gozo then we will keep failing ourselves to give representation a fair chance in our institutions.
I think its time for a panel debate launched by the Insite to give this election full exposure and start informing the university public finally…
April 1st, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Yawn. Same old, same old. Pulse will lose. SDM will win. Moviment Lib will claim that the system was used against them
ps. PULSE have twins running? Smooth
April 4th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Yes Pulse have two sisters, SDM have a gay couple
Wonderful eh?!
April 4th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Actually looking at what happened last year.
SDM win
MI get a decent amount of votes
Pulse withdraw from the election in protest for the way the AGM of KSU was managed.
To the best of my knowledge ML never said the system is being used against them but one can argue that the system is skewed in favour of who is in the KSU office, who is established also in JC etc..
The system fails on various counts the problem is that the problem of the student vote turn out has never seriously been addressed by all parties.
April 4th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
@M Buttigieg very immature and pathetic reasoning. May I ask who you are siding with?
April 5th, 2011 at 10:04 am
Seems that you may be offended Mr Buttigieg, you really don’t have to!
Who’s your partner then: Anton Abela, David Camilleri or Thomas Bugeja?
April 5th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
ignorant people like you make the strongest argument against democracy M Buttigieg.
April 5th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Hehe pathetic
April 5th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
M Buttigieg, I’d rather vote for a homosexual than an idiot like you.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
People like you M.Buttigieg (next time have the balls to write your full name ta) make voting for mature people much easier. Keep those stupid comments coming