After dominated by the independents last elections, Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC) bets overran the Central Student Council (CSC), assuming five of six posts for the academic year 2012-2013.
Lone candidate for presidency, Engineering student Rubi Anne Dauan of LTC, secured the position as she garnered a total of 18,884 votes (70.30%) meeting the required “50 plus one” policy prescribed by the Student Election Code.
Coming from the same party are Kendra Duran with 11,713 votes (43.60%) and Via Guerrero with a 12,318 votes (45.85%) who will take over the Office of the Secretary and Auditor, respectively.
On the other hand, solitary Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino (Lakas Diwa) winner Joanna Loise Culianan won as the Treasurer as she acquired a total of 11,680 votes (43.48%).
COMELEC Glitch
Changes have been made on the proclamation of the winners for the Offices of the vice president and public relations officer after the Central Commission on Elections (COMELEC) learned that election returns from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) were not included in the final mark.
A week after the initial proclamation on Feb. 22, LTC candidates Argee Gonzales (VP) and Cris Angelo Salazar (PRO) were proclaimed as the winners as they registered a total of 11,376 votes (42.35 %) and 11,318 (42.13 %) after the re-count, displacing initially proclaimed winners Lakas Diwa vice presidential candidate Guammer Partosa and public relations officer aspirant Jan Michael Borja.
“The Central COMELEC Commissioners panicked upon knowing the CFAD election problem, and focused on resolving it, which was one of the reasons why we were not able to double-check the results,” as stated in the account e-mailed by the Central COMELEC Chairman Glen Buendia to R.A.W.R., explaining why such an error occurred.
Buendia added that they could have retracted the announcement earlier if not for the Neocentennial Retreat since it was already resolved last Feb. 27.
Failure of Elections
The supposed date of the victors’ proclamation on Feb. 18 was moved to the 22nd because College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) did not make it due to the senior’s thesis week.
As stated in the Student Election Code, if not all election returns have been obtained by the COMELEC, the pursuance of election depends on the availability of the election returns, but CFAD, having a total number of 2,200 voters, would significantly affect the central election results.
CFAD elections were then moved the following week from Feb. 20 to 21 including its local council elections.
Meanwhile, the Conservatory of Music was the only college who fully declared failure of elections as only 144 (22.15 %) of the total population voted.
Local Councils
With the central elections, students also casted their votes in their respective colleges from Feb. 14 to 16 on political groups under the banners of LTC and Lakas Diwa, including independent candidates who vied in the said election.
**Errata:
It has come to the attention of TomasinoWeb that the writer mistakenly identified some of the names of the election winners. As what the CSC Publication issued on March, we reiterate that the following are the newly elected Local Student Council Presidents:
Paul Argie Cruz of Accountancy, Julius Romel Fernandez of the Arts and Letters, Eizelle Therese Yee of Architecture, Mark Arthur Catabona of Civil Law, Daniel Joshua Custodio of Commerce, Ruth Paulina Mesa of Education, John Marvin Morante of Engineering, Efren Angelo Dela Dingco of Medicine, Michael Kim Genilo of Nursing, John Mark Villena of Pharmacy, Jomar Buenage of Philosophy, Sharmaine Santiago of Rehabilitation Sciences, Polie Atienza of Theology, John Edward Quiepo of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Kamille Louvis Lim of Fine Arts and Design, Sherry Ann Cantor of Music, Cefeleen Cruz of Science, Phoebe Claire Manapat of UST High School, and Michelle Angeline Falcon of UST Education High School.
Our Apologies.
© TW ’11-’12
By Oswald Fabi-Sablay
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