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Ammon News - By Hicham Sawalqah

AMMONNEWS - Campaigns for the University of Jordan (UJ) Student Union launched on Wednesday, with over 35,000 students expected to cast their ballots on December 27th to elect 94 students to represent them in the Student Union.

Student Union campaigns launched on Wednesday with thousands of candidates' banners and flyers hanging throughout the university halls and campus streets.

Several students and professors voiced complaints of the campaigns, particularly candidates who used loud speakers, musical instruments, and fireworks inside the university campus, causing annoyance during classes.

University of Jordan amended the Student Union Elections law to be more in tune with the amended 2012 Jordanian parliamentary elections law.

The new UJ elections law includes candidacy on two levels, individual candidacy on the level of departments or faculties, that will have 85 out of a total of 94 seats.

A total of 469 students are running on the department and faculty level lists, competing for 85 seats.

The second level, with 9 allocated seats, are reserved for lists running on the general university level, with each list having a minimum of 7 candidates.

Five university-level lists are running for elections competing for the 9 allocated seats, including one list representing the Islamist current, and others representing nationalist and governorate-based students.

UJ election observers anticipated in statements to Ammon News that the participation rate in student elections will not surpass 65 percent, citing reasons that include the date of the elections (December 27th) which coincide with the beginning of final exam period, in addition to students' lack of knowledge of running candidates and the new elections 2-vote method.