Feb. 19, 01:55 a.m. – THE PROCLAMATION of new Central Student Council (CSC) officers has been moved to Wednesday, Feb. 22, as the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) has yet to hold elections.
In a resolution dated Feb. 18, the Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the Central Board of Canvassers could not proclaim the winners in the absence of election returns from the CFAD Comelec. Central Comelec chair Glen Camille Buendia said this was because of CFAD’s “thesis week.”
“Students from CFAD had no classes [this week] because senior (students) had to defend their theses,” Buendia said. “Everybody is busy in CFAD.”
A two-day election will be held at CFAD on Monday and Tuesday, for both the college student council and the CSC. Proclamation of new CFAD Student Council and CSC officers will follow on Wednesday.
Article IX, Sec. 8 of the Student Election Code of 2007 reads: “[T]he Board of Canvassers, notwithstanding that not all election results have been received by it, may terminate the canvass and proclaim the candidates elected on the basis of the available election returns if the missing election returns will not affect the results of the election.”
But the Central Board of Canvassers said CFAD, which has a voting population of 2,200, is large enough to affect the results of the University-wide polls. Buendia said there is a “close fight” among candidates, enough to “shake things up.”
The partial-official election returns for the CSC elections will not also be released to anyone in the “spirit of free, orderly, and credible elections,” the Central Comelec said.
The Conservatory of Music, meanwhile, experienced a failure of election for not meeting the required voter turnout of 25 percent. Music had a turn-out of 22.15 percent, with only 144 voters out of the total 650 students. Special elections in Music have been tentatively scheduled on Feb. 27 and 28. The Central Comelec said anybody in Music can run for office.
The College of Accountancy had the highest voter turnout, with 3,445 voters out of the college population of 3,676, or 93.72 percent. Following Accountancy is the Faculty of Civil Law which had 436 voters out of 511 students (85.32 percent), and UST High School with 595 voters out of 1,907 (83.64 percent).
The College of Architecture had the second-lowest voter turnout at 36.16 percent (759 out of 2,100). The Faculty of Engineering, which has the biggest student population, had a turnout of only 48.23 percent (3,511 out of 7,280). J. M. T. Mutuc and R. D. Madrid
