After a campaign characterized as "dirty, ugly and bitter," law students yesterday elected second-year student Enu Mainigi president of the Law School Council.

More than half the student body voted yesterday and Wednesday in Harkness Commons, choosing Mainigi for the post over second-year law student Raul Perez '90 by a margin of 458 votes to 301.

The students also chose Chantal Thomas as vice president and Lisa Stephenson as treasurer for the coming year.

Reached late last night, Mainigi said that she believes her priorities on the Council are twofold. She said she would like to see the Council "strike a balance between providing student services and promoting faculty diversity."

Her opponent, Perez, attacked her campaign tactics.

"It was a very disappointing campaign that only hurt the reputation of the Law School Council," he said. "All the smearing was done by my opponent."

Mainigi disagreed, saying that while the campaign did become extremely negative, both sides had been responsible for this.

"I think it started because there were inaccuracies in his campaign statement that people wanted to see corrected," she said.

Much of the disagreement centered around the issue of a debate between the two candidates.

Perez claimed, in advertisements, that Mainigi refused his invitation to debate. However, in a flier, "Ad Watch," first-year law student Dean Newton called the claims "untrue."

"Mr. Perez has suggested two times which he has known to be in conflict with Ms. Mainigi's schedule," the flier said. "Mr. Perez has refused to debate at alternate times proposed by Ms. Mainigi." The debate finally took place, on Tuesday.

Perez served as campaign manager last year for current Council president Mary Louise Ramsdale. He claimed to be supported by a slew of student leaders, including the presidents of the Law School Council, Women's Law Association, Asian-American Law Students Association, La Alianza, Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues and the Coalition for Civil Rights.

But Newton disputed Perez' claims. In his "Ad Watch" flier, Newton wrote, "In fact, some student leaders listed on [Perez's] ads either endorse neither candidate or both candidates equally