I read with interest the leader on voting for the executive committee of the University Students’ Council (KSU) and Pulse’s decision not to contest yet again the forthcomingKSU elections.

I consider the problem not to be Pulse but the KSU statute, which allows for a situation where the winner takes all and the loser does not get even one seat on the KSU executive committee. I consider this to be highly undemocratic and shameful.

If one were to look at the general elections, local council elections and European Parliament elections where the single transferable vote proportional representation method of election is used, both Labour and Nationalist parties’ candidates obtain seats that are proportionate to the votes cast by the electorate. But this is not the case with KSU where Pulse – the Labour Party student organisation – does not even get one seat on the KSU executive even if it might win up to 49 per cent of the student vote. All seats are taken by the Nationalist Party student organisation – the Maltese Christian Democrat Students (SDM).

This is unhealthy because the KSU ends up being the Nationalist Party University students’ club on campus, and not – as it should be – an organisation that represents all university students on campus, irrespective of their political leanings.

If I were leading Pulse on campus I would surely have boycotted the KSU elections and activities as, otherwise, Pulse would end up contributing to the KSU’s legitimacy among the student body, a legitimacy it does not have because it does not represent all university students but only Nationalist students.

I consider this to be wrong and unhealthy in a democratic society. The elections for KSU are a sham and a farce.

If the KSU wants to redeem itself it should change its statute to substitute the first past the post method of election with that used for all national elections – the single transferable vote proportional representation method. Until this is done, the KSU remains just a Nationalist Party club on campus, which cannot enjoy the legitimacy of the whole student body.