DURING a symposium on voter’s education, Thomasian students called for more aggressive campaigning to enhance student participation on student elections.
“With the short 12-day campaign period because of classes, there is little hype created,” Legal Management student Abi Gabasa said. “Candidates should campaign more aggressively to get the students’ attention.”
During the Voter’s Forum at the UST Library Conference room last Feb. 10, Batas Tomasino president Errol Comafay cited indifference among students as one of the reasons for low voter turnout.
“Students should care about the elections because ‘the elected officers’ will be the ones leading the entire student body,” Comafay, the Faculty of Civil Law student council treasurer, said. “Students do not vote because they are apathetic and indifferent.”
Even as students are said to lack interest in the campus elections, Comafay said candidates should also exert additional efforts to make their intentions known, like a man courting a woman.
The forum, themed “My Vote Matters: A Voter’s Information Advocacy,” was held by the Legal Management Society of the Faculty of Arts and Letters and Batas Tomasino to encourage more students to participate in the Central Student Elections.
Comafay added that students’ apathy and indifference causes a failure of elections and loss of candidates due to the large “abstain” vote.
Office of the Student Affairs head of student activities Thelma Maraña explained that students should always have time for extra-curricular activities because these activities create awareness in leadership.
“Students are apathetic because they do not exactly know what the officers do,” Maraña said. J.T. Villaflor
