When Ballots Replaced Brawls: How OSPOLY Finally Broke Its Election Violence Curse
By Victor Olubiye For decades, election seasons at Osun State Polytechnic, Iree (OSPOLY) were synonymous with tension. Once campaign posters appeared on the walls of lecture halls and hostel gates, anxiety followed closely behind. What ought to be a celebration of campus democracy often degenerated into chaos. The Students’ Union Government (S.U.G), Faculty of Information Communication Technology (F.I.C.T), and Mass Communication Department elections – three of the most competitive and influential contests on campus – regularly ended in shouting matches, vandalism, injuries, and sometimes indefinite suspension of student activities. But in 2025, something extraordinary happened. The air was different. The campus, which had once braced itself for conflict, witnessed instead a peaceful and orderly election season that surprised even the most skeptical students. For the first time in living memory, OSPOLY conducted its three most sensitive elections without any violence, protest, or...