SU Elections: What’s Your Color?
By: Aya Aboshady
@Aya_Abuchadiee
The 2019-2020 Student Union (SU) Elections will be held tomorrow, but for the first time in years the political groupings, commonly known as camps, will be absent from the race.
Youssef AbdelKader and Lamis Sallam, on one ticket, are running against Mohamed El Fiky and Salma Ehab for SU president and vice-president, but none of the four candidates belong to any camp.
This is in stark contrast to how student political allegiances have played out on campus since at least 2012.
The political scene at AUC had been widely split between three camps- the Red, Blue and Black.
Current SU President Saeed Zakaria is part of the Red Camp. Vice-President Menna Emara is not part of any political camp.
Their opponents, Mohamed Tharwat and Youssef Elwi, who lost the 2018-2019 elections, represented the Black Camp.
There have been rumors that some of the current running candidates are in fact members of a new Green Camp, but Abdelkader quickly dispelled them.
“First of all, there is simply no such thing as a Green Camp. Lamis Sallam and I are not part of any political camps. We’re 100 percent running as individuals and are not being directly supported nor affiliated with any camps at AUC,” said AbdelKader, who is a Business and Finance junior.
He believes that the origin of the Green Camp label can be traced back to the 2017-2018 SU elections when Mohamed Gadallah and Ahmed Gazar ran as “independents” against Red Camp candidates, Ahmed El Shazly and Ahmed Amer.
“It doesn’t make sense to quickly label a person because of who they choose to support in the elections. I was supporting Gadallah and Gazar, therefore; I’m Green. Then when I supported Saeed and Menna in 2018, I became a Red. And right now, I’m apparently starting a new one [color],” AbdelKader joked.
But beyond the sarcasm, there appears to be a redrawing of political turf between the more influential camps.
Political Science Senior and Black Camp Representative Elwi says there was no interest in running for the SU top jobs.
“We think that we have a very good position in the senate right now. We have exactly 27 out of 57 seats,” Elwi told The Caravan
He also explained that this is a part of last year’s elections success. Even though Tharwat and Elwi lost the elections, they viewed it as a political win for the camp because they gained popularity and won over more people who believed in their cause.
“There were rumors about Tharwat and I running again this year, but we actually never thought about it, because it’s simply physically and mentally exhausting and time consuming. The process is also never ending,” Elwi added.
Construction Engineering senior and Blue Camp representative Omar Marakby said they don’t have the right people inside the camp at the moment who would be qualified to run for the SU.
“People see all of us as rivals. The truth is yes, we could say Red and Black are not always on the same page. But as a Blue Camp, we don’t necessarily have an ally. It’s all based on the political arena and who we think is more qualified for a specific position at a specific time,” said Marakby.
“We’re currently more focused on developing our members. Since this year’s candidates are almost equal in experience and quality, we’re giving our members the freedom to choose their candidate without any pressure,” Marakby added.
The Caravan interviewed Red Camp representative M.K., a Political science graduate who asked to remain anonymous.
“We’re not a political camp, we don’t have a political ideology, and we do not seek power. If we don’t have someone/a team who fits the position for the current time, we won’t run in the SU Elections just to prove our presence,” said M.K.
He denied that the Red Camp is out to grab power.
The Red Camp is comprised of a group of friends who are only there to support one another in anything, M.K. said.
“If someone is running for his own benefit and not the student body’s, such a thing is evident. Therefore, he fails. It simply doesn’t work like that for us,” he added.
M.K. emphasized that whenever they run in the SU Elections, they win. They support their candidates because they’re part of the camp.
