BEIRUT: The Lebanese American University is gearing up for elections Friday after partisan fights delayed university elections scheduled for December. A number of parties and potential voters have decided to boycott the event due to a controversial new election law and a deeply politicized campus.

The Progressive Socialist Party’s youth organization has decided not to run at either of the university’s campuses due to a new one-man-one-vote system that only lets students vote for one person instead of a list of candidates.

Mainly March 8 candidates will be running in Beirut after the Future Movement decided to boycott the election as they say the university handled a fight involving the party in November unfairly.

The PSP says the new voting system is unfair and deprives them of power they have usually counted on under the list system. As in national politics, the PSP is often the kingmaker at LAU, awarding their alliance to either the March 8 or March 14 bloc, giving them the majority.

An official with the student organization of the PSP said the group is boycotting the elections because the new system would reinforce sectarian tensions by discouraging cross confessional voting.

“If we go for the one man one vote, students from the mountains will vote for candidates from the mountains and students from the southern suburbs of Beirut will vote for candidates from southern suburbs,” said Youssef Daibes a university coordinator for the party.

“We are abiding by our convictions, we are not against anyone, we are not allied with anyone,” he said. “We would rather lose a couple of seats in the elections than to lose credibility with our people.”

Student political groups get policy direction from outside party officials, and the PSP’s debate over a more representative but confession-based electoral law mimics the national debate in Parliament over a similar proposal from Christian politicians.

Leading Maronite politicians agreed last month to consider an electoral law proposal for proportional representation that restricts voters to selecting MPs from the same sect. The proposal was heavily criticized for entrenching sectarianism, rather than bolstering national unity.

In November, seven students and the head of campus security were injured after clashes between supporters of the Future Movement and the Amal Movement. The university disciplined the students involved in response to the fights, which closed classes for the day.

A representative from the Future Movement said the university went too far and would not cooperate with the party’s organization on campus, so they will be boycotting in Beirut.

“Our issue is how the university cooperates with us,” said Tarek Hajjar, a Future Movement university coordinator. “They made the decision after one fight: it was unfair.”

Political wrangling aside, many students at LAU said they are tired of an overly politicized, divided campus with tension that can boil over into fights at any time. Many students said they won’t be voting because of the boycotts, the chaotic campus during election day and general disinterest with sectarian divisions.

Wassim Maalouf, a student at the Beirut campus, said things have calmed down after the clashes but he said tensions remain.

“It’s all about religion here between Sunni and Shiites,” the second year economics major said.

Other students agreed, saying that the campus is deeply divided down religious lines, regardless of the election factor.

Drinking coffee with his friends outside the Beirut campus, Bahaa Loutfi said he wished the campus wasn’t just a local battleground for national politics. He said because of how politicized the campus is some students only associate with people from the same religion and party.